Transit advocates went to Eden Prairie's SouthWest Transit Station on Wednesday morning hoping to impress commuters with what's at stake when a $7.7 billion transportation package goes before the Minnesota House and Senate today.
As riders hurried to catch buses, volunteers from five pro-transit groups handed out cups of hot coffee and a map of what a regional transit system could look like -- if the big bill passes.
The proposal would increase state spending on roads and bridges by raising the 20-cent gas tax by a nickel this year and another 3.5 cents in coming years. More funding also could come under a provision allowing metro counties to levy a half-cent sales tax for road and transit needs.
Advocates estimated the bill would provide an extra $117 million to $173 million a year for rail and bus service. If federal matching funds could be secured, that would be enough to deliver eight new transitways, for trains or buses, by 2020 -- including the southwest light-rail line eagerly awaited by the western suburbs, the advocates said Wednesday.
Lea Schuster, director of Transit For Livable Communities, said Minnesota's transit commuters deserve a regionwide transit system and "they deserve the environmental and economic benefits such a system would bring to our state."
Such a system would also shift commuters' spending from gasoline, supplied by overseas oil companies, to bus or rail fares, keeping $20 million more per year in Minnesota's economy, Schuster said.
Rep. Frank Hornstein, DFL-Minneapolis, one of the chief proponents of the transportation bill, said greater use of transit also would cut tailpipe pollution that is contributing to global warming.
"The single most important thing a commuter can do to reduce global warming is to take transit," Hornstein said.
