Minnesota Lawyer
Melisa Lopez Franzen
Transportation advocates who on Wednesday were bemoaning the Senate Taxes Committee’s decision to pass on increased funding for transit and highway construction got some good news Friday evening on the Senate floor.
In the latest in a number of about-faces on transportation this session, the Senate cracked open the omnibus transportation bill on the floor and inserted a gas tax increase to pay for road and bridge projects and a sales tax increase in the seven-county metro area for transit projects.
The bill passed 35-27 with four DFLers voting with all Republicans in opposition. The DFLers were Sens. John Hoffman, Bev Scalze, Dan Sparks and Melissa Halvorson Wiklund.
Sen. Melisa Franzen, DFL-Edina, amended the bill to increase the per-gallon gas tax by 2.5 cents this year and by another 2.5 cents in 2015. It also increases the sales tax in the metro area by a quarter of a percent this year and by another quarter percent in 2015. The combined increases would generate about $1 billion over four years.
Lawmakers are mulling transportation funding because the report of an advisory committee appointed by Gov. Mark Dayton last year reported that current policies will underfund the state’s transportation needs looking out to 2020 to the tune of $21 billion.
Friday evening’s vote capped a chaotic week at the state Capitol for transportation. The Taxes Committee on Wednesday was poised to hear a bill by Senate Transportation Chair Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, that would have increased the gas tax by 7.5 cents. In the hearing, both Dibble’s proposal and a smaller amendment were withdrawn and the committee passed the status quo to the floor. The gas tax faces the hurdle of opposition from Gov. Mark Dayton, but many lawmakers and lobbyists believe that the sales tax for transit in the metro area can’t pass unless it’s coupled with a funding source like the gas tax that benefits greater Minnesota.
Republicans claimed to be caught off guard by Franzen’s amendment. Sen. Julianne Ortman, R-Chanhassen, said the move to amounts to a violation of Senate rules on conduct.
“I believe what’s happened here, when we’ve got a delete-all amendment offered at the last minute with no notice to anybody in the public and no hearings in the committees that passed the bill,” Ortman said. “Improper conduct includes behavior that betrays the public trust or that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor or disrepute. Members in the minority feel like this backroom deal was struck at the very last minute and that strikes at the core of public trust.”
Note: The timeframe for the revenue collections was changed to address the comment below. The revenue spreadsheet is attached.
The article states that the 5-cent gas tax increase and the half-cent metro sales tax increase approved by the Minnesota Senate will annually raise about $1 billion. This estimate is way too high. A cent of state gas tax raises about $30 million/year so the five-cent increase should raise $150 million/year. The existing quarter-cent metro sales tax raises about $100 million/year so a half-cent increase should raise $200 million/year. When completely phased in through the next biennium, the proposed increases should raise $350 million/year, not $1 billion.
I applaud Senator Franzen for inserting an increased tax on gas into the transportation bill, and commend all those who voted for this change. It’s the responsible thing to do.
Population growth means more drivers on the roads, resulting in greater congestion with more hours of slow moving cars belching more CO2 into the air.
Minnesota needs a comprehensive transportation plan that will take us into a future where people have the option of biking, walking, and using public transportation for most of what they need to do and where they need to go. Higher gas taxes not only help pay for the improvements necessary, but offer incentives for using cars as little as possible.