Dayton Releases 2 Transportation Funding Plans As Deadline Nears
ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) -- One week before the Minnesota Legislature goes home for the year, Governor Mark Dayton tried to break a budget stalemate with two transportation funding plans.
Under both plans, however, drivers will feel the sting to fix the state's deteriorating roads and bridges.
More than 40 percent of state roads are at least 50 years old. And with the metro area expected to grow by 750,000 people, congestion is headed from bad -- to stopped.
Governor Mark Dayton blames 20 years of neglect for the sorry state of Minnesota highways, but his plan to fix it is a bumpy road, too.
"The general fund comes from taxpayers. Tab fees come from taxpayers. Gas tax comes from taxpayers. There's no one else that's going to pay to improve our transportation system except for all of us," Dayton said.
The Democratic governor is proposing a 5-cent gas tax hike and a 1/2 cent metro sales tax for transit. License tab fees would go up too -- a 30 percent increase with the 5-cent gas tax, and as high as 97 percent without it.
"The public is not going to swallow a doubling of their tab fees," Republican Speaker of the House Kurt Daudt said.
Republican leaders immediately put on the brakes: rejecting the Governor's offer as unnecessary.
"It's a tough argument to make to the public that -- when you have a $900 million surplus -- that you need to raise taxes or fees to pay for something that is everyone's priority," Daudt said.
The governor says he wants to jump-start the transportation debate: but he warned lawmakers running for re-election not to play politics if they want to go home with a bill.
"And it's to do things for the better interest of Minnesota now and in the future, whether it happens to be politically popular right now or not," Dayton said.
The governor is looking to $600 million a year to fix Minnesota roads and bridges, and about $200 million of that this year could come from the budget surplus. He's trying hard to get Republicans to agree, but he says he's willing to let the legislature go home this election year without it.
