Commentary; Posted: 5/11/05
This transportation plan makes sense
This Minnesota Legislature knows it cannot adjourn without addressing the problem of traffic congestion and safety, particularly in the Twin Cities Metropolitan area.
In Minnesota, three-fourths of the urban freeways are congested. Local road /bridge and transit unfunded needs exceed $1 billion annually. The average driver on Twin Cities area highways is stuck in traffic for 42 hours a year.
In poll after poll, frustrated Minnesotans say the problem of congested traffic is among their highest priorities for legislative action.
Gov. Tim Pawlentyís administration has a bonding program for transportation improvements through 2007 but itís only a start.
The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce has developed a comprehensive plan in response to its members who say crowded roadways throughout the state are causing delays in delivering goods and even are keeping good people from doing business or taking jobs in Minnesota.
Legislators know the need to fix highways, roads and bridges and improving transit are a high priority with constituents. The legislative road jam comes over what projects to do first and how to pay for them.
The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce has a 10-year plan with a funding mechanism that makes sense. The timeline for doing the 66 planned projects would be moved up, and the plan addresses the major traffic tie-ups in the Twin Cities Metropolitan area.
The chamberís plan, ìMinnesota Moves,î has 13 major expansion projects in the metropolitan area and 48 in Greater Minnesota.
The centerpiece is identifying the 66 major transportation projects and funding for them. The list of projects comes from the Minnesota Department of Transportation and the Metropolitan Council.
The plan also prescribes the funding, including a 5-cent increase in the gasoline tax tied to the specific road and transit improvements, which would be voted on as a constitutional amendment in 2006. If passed, the average Minnesotan driving 12,000 miles annually would pay $24 more in a fuel tax.
Other funding pieces to raise $6 billion over 10 years are: federal funding, $160 million; Mn/DOT transportation efficiencies, $60 million; general obligation bonds, $65 million; five years of trunk highway bonds, $150 million; local governments match $25 million; and 80 percent of the motor vehicle sales tax transfer, $72 million.
This plan addresses statewide transportation needs: 54 percent for state highways (29 percent for metro and 25 percent for Greater Minnesota) 25 percent for transit, 18 percent for local roads and 3 percent for air/port/rail.
If this were to pass, the new money of about $600 million annually would go to fund transportation and transit projects. The chamber points out that the Department of Transportation would get $1.3 billion annually, with 90 percent going to maintain and preserve the existing system.
Without the increase in the gas tax the proposal loses $160 million a year, and without a provision for voting, Gov. Pawlenty wonít sign it.
The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce has given the state more than just a starting point. It has identified the projects and the funding including a vote on a constitutional amendment to increase the gas tax by 5 cents.
Legislators, start your engines. ó This editorial is an opinion of the ECM Editorial Board. The Forest Lake Times is part of ECM Publishers.
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