Minnesota GOP plan funds transportation with general fund, not tax hike

Pioneer Press ^ | 3-24-15 | David Montgomery

[TurboZamboni]

Republican lawmakers on Monday proposed a $7 billion plan that they called an investment in transportation over the next decade. The proposal has some common ground with plans from leaders of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, but big divisions remain. The parties are far apart on how much money a transportation plan should include, how much of it should go to Twin Cities metro-area mass transit and -- above all -- whether the plan should be paid for by raising taxes or cutting spending. DFL Gov. Mark Dayton and the Senate DFL majority each proposed their own plans in January. Their approaches differ in some details but are largely similar: about $6 billion in statewide tax increases for roads and bridges, paired with borrowed money and billions of dollars for mass transit from a sales tax hike in the metro area.

In all, Dayton and the Senate DFLers would spend about $10.7 billion on transportation over 10 years. The biggest and most controversial idea is a new sales tax on gasoline that would add 16 cents or more to the pump price.

In contrast, Republicans want to avoid any tax increases. Instead, they would redirect money from several existing taxes to be spent on transportation.

[Theodore R.]

If it’s MN, liberalism will prevail now or later. Last night on ‘’Jeopardy’’, HHH was the question required, and no one remembered him.

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

That’ll have Gov. Fudd stuttering and stammering.

[Socon-Econ]

Transportation should be financed, as much as possible, by user fees or private tolls. People who don’t use transportation should not be forced to subsidize those who do. And user fees force users to economize on the use of transportation assets, such as by postponing trips that they are capable of postponing during peak hours. Politicians, of course, like to raid user fee funds for welfare spending, but this is not grounds for dismantling the user fee principle.