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Omnibus transportation bill starts its drive toward House Floor

Rep. Paul Torkelson and Rep. Linda Runbeck during a Tuesday news conference announcing the release of the omnibus transportation bill. House Photography file photo
Rep. Paul Torkelson and Rep. Linda Runbeck during a Tuesday news conference announcing the release of the omnibus transportation bill. House Photography file photo

The House Transportation Finance Committee approved an omnibus transportation bill Thursday that the legislation’s Republican sponsor says marks a critical step forward for road and bridge funding in the state.

DFL members, however, assert it is a bill that pits roads versus mass transit, metro Minnesota versus Greater Minnesota, and transportation versus the state’s health care and education needs.

Rep. Paul Torkelson (R-Hanska) sponsors HF861 that would boost state spending on roads and bridges by roughly $2 billion over the next two years — and $6 billion over 10 years — through a shift of General Fund dollars and significant borrowing.

It would redirect $450 million in transportation-related tax revenues from the General Fund into a new account for road and bridge infrastructure projects, and proposes $1 billion in Trunk Highway borrowing over four years.

The bill would also direct $300 million toward the Corridors of Commerce program aimed at aiding important commercial thoroughfares in Greater Minnesota, impose a $75 annual surcharge on electric vehicles and make a number of policy changes.

“We’ve put together a substantial transportation bill,” Torkelson said during Thursday’s hearing. “It may not be a perfect bill, but it’s substantial.

In defending the bill, Torkelson noted the difficulty Minnesota lawmakers have had in turning major transportation legislation into law. It has been nearly a decade since the Legislature has successfully sent a long-term transportation funding package to the governor’s desk.

Approved on a voice vote, HF861, as amended, now moves to the House Taxes Committee. The Senate omnibus transportation bill, SF1060, sponsored by Sen. Scott Newman (R-Hutchinson), has been approved by the Senate Transportation Finance and Policy Committee and awaits action by the Senate Taxes Committee.

DFLers — while offering some praise for the bill’s attempt to ramp up badly needed spending on the state’s road system — again roundly criticized the bill, saying it relies on an unstable funding source.

Rep. Clark Johnson (DFL-North Mankato) called the bill “a start,” but “certainly not a finish.”

“Fundamentally, this bill — by choice — puts the cost of roads and bridges in direct competition with schools and human services,” he said. The state should instead look for new funds that are constitutionally dedicated to transportation needs as a way to boost funding.

Thirty-five other states utilize General Fund dollars for their transportation needs, Torkelson said, and noted that when the economy dips funding sources dedicated to transportation — like revenues from the state’s gas tax — dip, too.

“When you spend a dollar on a road, the road doesn’t really care where it came from,” he said.

It’s a lack of dollars, rather than where they come from, that the bill would spend on metro area mass transit that also displeased DFLers. The bill would cut roughly $53 million in base funding to the Metropolitan Council; the council says that would mean deep cuts to regular route bus service that is the backbone of the Metro Transit system.

The bill also includes policy measures that would eliminate state subsidies for operations and maintenance on existing light rail lines and clamp down on the planning and construction of future lines.

Twin Cities transit “gets eviscerated” in the bill, said Rep. Paul Rosenthal (DFL-Edina). And that, he argued, hurts Minnesotans across the state.

The Twin Cities “are the economic driver in this state, and we spend a lot of money that goes out of our communities and into [Greater Minnesota] communities — and we’re OK with that,” Rosenthal said. Later, he added: “I think it’s amazing that you want to choke [transit] development that, ultimately, goes to fund projects in your district.”

 

Amendments adopted

Amendments adopted during Thursday’s hearing include measures that would:

  • direct the Department of Transportation to conduct a safety improvement and congestion relief study of the Interstate 94, Interstate 494 and Interstate 694 interchange in Oakdale and Woodbury;
  • increase the fine for failing to stop for a school bus stop arm from $300 to $500; and
  • alter MnDOT’s Corridors of Commerce project selection process to give preference to Greater Minnesota projects that have been previously funded, and metro area projects that would provide additional capacity on non-interstate highways with annual daily traffic volume of at least 50,000 vehicles. 

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