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Tax-raising transportation bill on a roll
DFLers guided the $8.4 billion proposal through several legislative committees; it's on collision course with the governor.
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With an eye toward bigger battles ahead, House and Senate DFLers pushed an $8.4 billion transportation initiative that calls for gas tax and sales tax hikes through several legislative committees Thursday.
DFL leaders said the proposal, which is certain to lead to a showdown with Gov. Tim Pawlenty, could be ready for floor votes in both houses at the end of next week, and is expected to change little before then. The Senate Transportation Committee, chaired by Sen. Steve Murphy, DFL-Red Wing, the chief Senate author, easily passed the plan following an hour of debate.
Early Thursday evening, the House Finance Committee also passed the proposal by a 21 to 8 margin.
The legislation would raise the gas tax by a nickel by September and would increase license tab fees, especially on luxury vehicles.
Moreover, it would impose a half-cent sales tax in the Twin Cities metro area to help fund transit, roads, bridges and other projects.
Murphy said the proposal may see some changes in order to win more votes, and said a provision to hike the gas tax further based on inflation increases might need more study.
"The indexing provision has given some folks pause," Murphy said. He said lobbyists for Minnesota truckers, for instance, "felt that the indexing was putting government taxation on automatic pilot."
"This is quite a bill," said Sen. Julianne Ortman, R-Chanhassen, an assistant minority leader. Yet Senate Republicans did not stage a frontal assault on the proposal Thursday, raising mostly technical questions on why the metro sales tax would be put in place without a voters' referendum and how metro counties could opt out of the sales tax.
Under the proposal, metro counties participating in the sales tax would need to join a newly created joint powers board, but could later opt out.
"If a county withdraws, do you still raise tax revenue from that county?" asked Ortman.
"My understanding is, no," said Murphy, although DFLers said the ultimate decision would depend on the terms a particular county agreed to when it chose to participate.
Sen. Dan Larson, DFL-Bloomington, said allowing counties to withdraw would lead to unfairness. "It would truly end up being a shame if we end up with a couple of counties that don't participate," enabling their residents to benefit from regional transit improvements they are not paying for, he said.
Mike Kaszuba • 612-673-4388
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