Dayton's budget includes metro tax aimed at stabilizing transit funding

Gov. Mark Dayton has again recommended a half-cent, metro-wide transit-dedicated tax in an effort to provide more stable, long-term funding for expanding mass transit in the Twin Cities metropolitan area.

The governor’s 2018-2019 budget proposal, presented to the House Transportation Finance Committee on Tuesday, would double the existing transit-dedicated tax levied by the Counties Transit Improvement Board in five — soon-to-be four — metro counties.

CTIB, limited to the quarter-cent tax, is in the midst of considering whether to dissolve itself as another way to raise additional revenue for transit.

Metropolitan Council officials said the governor’s plan would generate nearly $450 million in additional transit funding over the next two years for bus, light rail and commuter rail lines in the metro area, and $3 billion in new transit revenue over the next decade.

“We have to plan for long-term,” said Wes Kooistra, regional administrator for the Metropolitan Council. “Projects take a long time to get off the ground … We need a reliable funding source for that purpose.”

The extra funding would allow the council to better plan long-term planning on new transit projects, accelerate expansion of the transit system and relieve the state’s General Fund of operating costs for current and future transitways, Kooistra said.

It's a budget recommendation facing a Legislature that has taken a skeptical stance toward increased transit funding.

A standoff over state funding for the Southwest light rail line helped scuttle negotiations last summer over a potential special session, and Republican House lawmakers have expressed their opposition to expanded light rail during the 2017 session.

“It all sounds really wonderful,” Rep. Steve Drazkowski (R-Mazeppa) said of Metropolitan Council’s 10-year vision that includes the addition of nearly a dozen arterial bus-rapid transit lines, new express bus services and light rail extensions. Except, Drazkowski added, “it’s building more, and more, and more and more,” and adding to the council’s transit operating costs.

Republicans have repeatedly criticized light rail as too expensive to build and operate, and have introduced bills this session aimed at restricting future projects.

Kooistra told lawmakers that only 16 percent of the council’s 2017 regional transit budget was devoted to light rail or commuter rail operations. The bulk of the budget — roughly 70 percent — was earmarked for bus operations, he said.