Yesterday the Minnesota House voted to override Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s veto of a state transportation funding bill. The override - a first for Gov. Pawlenty’s administration - means that the state will raise its gasoline tax for the first time in 20 years, raise the sales tax in the Twin Cities metro area to support transit development, and raise motor vehicle license tab fees - all to fund badly needed road and transit repair and upgrades.

Raising taxes during a recession is a painful decision, but today we have many more vehicles driving more miles than we did 20 years ago, and they are heavier vehicles to boot. That means roads and bridges are being pounded and need to be repaired. Other roads have become unsafe and need to be updated. At the same time, we simply have more people, and investment in transit is necessary to end the costly traffic gridlock in the Twin Cities. The increase in the gas tax was long overdue, since gas tax receipts have been eroded by inflation. Our investment in transit is also long overdue. Minnesota is finally maturing into a 21st-century state.

The Republicans who crossed party lines to vote in favor of the bill deserve praise, not vilification. Even the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce supported this bill.

But don’t think we’ve solved our transportation problems with this bill. According to MinnPost’s Steve Berg, “The new law will fill about 25 percent of the state’s transportation shortfall, estimated at nearly $2.5 billion a year.” And so we muddle on.

For more analysis of the vote and issue, in addition to the excellent article by Mr. Berg, see commentary by another MinnPost writer, Britt Robson.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 26th, 2008 at 10:47 am and is filed under Minnesota, Politics, Transportation.