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By Don Heinzman
Commissioners in five metropolitan counties are to be commended for biting the bullet and voting for the quarter-cent sales tax to build a badly needed transit system.
Poll after poll taken by newspapers and the Metro Council show that traffic congestion is the biggest concern.
The measure has passed in Anoka, Hennepin, Ramsey, Washington and Dakota counties.
This quarter-cent sales tax to be collected on sales within the individual counties will go into effect July 1 and is projected to raise $100 million a year for transit projects only. The sales tax in these individual counties will go from 6.5 to 6.75 percent.
Money raised will go into a pool where projects will be decided by a joint powers board with weighted voting depending on population and revenue raised.
What’s more, the new funding makes the counties eligible for more federal aid they know is coming.
Projects that could be funded include: Northstar commuter rail from Minneapolis to Big Lake, the proposed Central Corridor light rail line connecting Minneapolis and St. Paul, and bus rapid-transit projects along Cedar Avenue and Interstate 35W from Minneapolis south into Dakota County.
Dakota County could receive $14 million from the tax by 2011 for its bus-rapid transit project, along with the Robert Street and Red Rock Corridor projects.
The increased sales tax is expected to generate $8 million a year in Anoka County, while Washington County officials estimate the tax will bring in $57 million in 10 years.
Opposed county commissioners, some running for reelection this fall, asked for more time and lamented imposing another tax during these hard economic times. There’s concern also that those counties with fewer votes than the more populated ones will be left out and won’t get the value of what the county contributes.
The deadline for the decision to impose the tax to be able to collect it July 1 was April 1, which explains the urgency to vote.
Under the system approved by the Minnesota Legislature, Anoka County will have 10 votes, Dakota 13 votes, Hennepin 47 votes, Ramsey 18 votes and Washington County seven votes. The Metropolitan Council will have five votes.
Money from the tax can only be spent for transit way projects in the seven-county area: commuter rail, light rail and bus rapid transit.
Proponents argue that the tax will replace the property tax, which has been used for transit projects, such as Northstar Commuter Rail.
Rather than criticize commissioners who had the vision to see the need for a better transit system, residents should commend them.
It’s hard to vote for a tax increase, even for a quarter cent, but this decision will bring a transit system greater in value to the cost from a relieved commuter public.
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