Minn. lawmakers unveil transport plan with fuel tax

By MARTIGA LOHN and BRIAN BAKST
The Associated Press

2/12/2008

ST. PAUL — Big-ticket items like a long-range transportation spending plan and $1 billion worth of state building projects will get early and prominent billing as the Minnesota Legislature opens its 2008 session.

The bill would put at least $11 billion into transportation over the next decade. Murphy hopes to have the bill on Gov. Tim Pawlenty's desk before March, and if it runs into a veto, override the Republican governor by Easter.

The Democrats in charge of the Legislature left no doubt about the pace of the session as they promised to rush through those two priority bills and a ballot measure asking voters to raise the sales tax and dedicate the proceeds to environment and arts programs. Final votes on the ballot measure are expected this week.

"Members are fired up and ready to go to produce a really fast, efficient and effective session," House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, DFL-Minneapolis, said Monday.

Hints of the fierce partisanship that left a bitter aftertaste to the 2007 session appeared on Monday, even as leaders of both parties talked about mending the state's tattered economy. The stakes are even higher this year as a budget deficit deepens and the state recovers from the deadly Interstate 35W bridge collapse.

Pawlenty spokesman Brian McClung noted that two of the first three bills the Legislature plans to pass rely on tax increases.

"Our concern is that when Democrats talk about jump-starting, they're going to attach the jumper cables to your wallet," McClung said. "This is not the direction we should be heading in when we have a tough economy."

Still, Pawlenty is open to a nickel per gallon increase in the current 20-cent gas tax if it is offset by a tax decrease elsewhere, McClung said.

A transportation tax-supporting coalition called Progress in Motion decorated a Capitol news conference room with yellow-and-black signs calling for road investment to highlight the urgency of their issue.

Ramsey County Commissioner Tony Bennett urged lawmakers to get past party labels and do something.

"The only guy that likes this is my mechanic — he loves to align my car at $59.95," Bennett said.

He added: "Let's quit the rhetoric. Let's quit worrying about who did what and who's to blame for that. Let's just get the job done. Let's come up with a compromise one way or another."

Meanwhile, Kelliher said the legislators crafting the nearly $1 billion borrowing plan, known as the bonding bill, will give deference to projects that can move quickly from the drawing board to actual work. She said waiting until May to pass the bill would be a mistake because it would dilute the impact of the bill at a time when the economy needs a jolt.

"The (construction) season isn't completely lost," she said, "but the value goes way, way down" if a bill is delayed. McClung said the governor also wants swift passage of that bill.

Pogemiller said major activity on the budget, which faces a $373 million projected shortfall, won't occur until after the Legislature's late-March Easter break.

Republican Rep. Tom Emmer of Delano said the deficit fix should be the priority, not an afterthought.