Posted: 4:53 pm Mon, August 13, 2012
By Drew?Kerr
Tags: Charlie Zelle, Counties Transportation Improvement Board, Joe Gimse, Metropolitan Council, Mike Beard, Toni Carter, Transportation Finance Advisory Committee
The Minnesota Department of Transportation in July began working on a $30 million reconstruction project on Interstate 494, including the replacement of the Xerxes Avenue bridge. A state committee is looking at how to pay for road improvements and transit projects in Minnesota over the next 20 years. (Staff photo: Bill Klotz)
State and local officials have little trouble outlining the transportation and transit projects that could build a ?world class? system of highways, transit, rail and airports in Minnesota over the next 20 years.
The harder part: finding a way to pay for it.
Meeting for the fourth time since the group formed, the state?s Transportation Finance Advisory Committee on Monday was told that building the infrastructure to reduce congestion, drive economic development and compete nationally would require finding at least $21 billion in additional revenue between 2013 and 2032.
The Metropolitan Council separately outlined a funding gap of nearly $5 billion for a vision that includes more bus rapid transit, light rail, street cars and a 1.5 percent annual growth rate in bus services.
The numbers take into account rising inflation and are built on the assumption that state and federal funding for transportation and transit projects will remain consistent with current funding levels.
Committee members were charged by Gov. Mark Dayton to look at the potential funding shortages to produce a series of tools state and local leaders could use to close the gaps.
The group includes county commissioners, business leaders, members of the Met Council and state Department of Transportation officials. They began meeting in April and are expected to make the recommendations by the end of the year, setting the stage for legislative proposals.
Now, as the group focuses on the difference between vision and reality, officials are playing a game of ?what if,? one that offers few easy answers.
Various revenue-generating proposals include increasing the state?s 28-cent per gallon fuel tax (last raised in 2008), using state bonding and enhancing public-private partnerships.
State Sen. Joe Gimse, R-Willmar, and Rep. Mike Beard, R-Shakopee, on Monday also presented plans to put more of the responsibility into the hands of local government, giving them the ability to raise wheelage or sales taxes, issue bonds or forge public-private partnerships to achieve their priorities.
Gimse, who has chaired the Senate?s transportation committee since 2010, compared the idea to the Counties Transportation Improvement Board, which pays for transportation improvements in the metro area using a share of sales tax revenue. The group was formed in 2008 as the result of state legislation.
?The concept is the same ? all we?re saying is give people in outstate regions the same tools,? said Gimse, who has served on the Senate?s transportation committee since 2006.
Committee members pushed back against the idea, saying such an approach could disadvantage areas with fewer financial resources and create destructive regional competition.
The group, which met Monday in the Veterans Service Building near the Capitol in St. Paul, also is looking outside Minnesota for revenue-generating ideas. Examples discussed from Wisconsin, Missouri, Maryland and other states centered largely on raising taxes, increasing fees and collecting more tolls.
Officials acknowledge such measures may be a difficult sell to the public, but say failure to come up with new revenue will put the transportation network at risk, introduce crippling uncertainty and slow economic activity in the state.
?The problem is that in an era of need for expansion we have a very constrictive model,? Ramsey County Commissioner Toni Carter said. ?It?s an adaptive challenge and we need a different sort of solution.?
Met Council officials say failure to find new funding sources would lead to decreased services, lower ridership and higher fares.
If spending on statewide transportation infrastructure between 2013 and 2032 matched revenue projections of $18 billion, state transportation officials say there would be almost no money for system expansion and that nearly 4,100 miles of arterial highways and 20 percent of the state?s bridges would fall into ?poor? condition.
?The problem everyone sees is that there?s a cliff ? a point where projected revenue and projected cost start to divert pretty dramatically,? said Ken Buckeye, a planning director with the state Department of Transportation. ?We want to avoid that cliff.?
Charlie Zelle, who chairs the Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce?s board of directors and is chief executive at Jefferson Lines, said the failure to invest would mean lost opportunities.
Businesses considering relocation place proximity to transit at the top of their site selection criteria and want assurance that the transitways that have been outlined will become reality, Zelle said.
?This isn?t just hypothetical, which is why this is so important,? he said.
The committee did not come to any conclusions on Monday, but will meet again in September to continue their discussions. The group is also being tasked with coming up with ways to market their recommendations to the public.
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