Feb 18, 2008 5:03 pm US/Central
Leg. Abandons Plan To Tie Gas Tax To Inflation
ST. PAUL (AP) ―
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Motorists would see a nickel increase in the current 20 cent-per-gallon tax by this September. (File)
CBS4
A hefty spending plan for Minnesota roads, bridges and mass transit shrank Monday, with Democrats shaving the potential increase in the gas tax in hopes of luring more Republican support.
Under the revised bill, which could be put to House and Senate votes as soon as Thursday, the state's 20-cent gas tax would rise a nickel per gallon this year. The tax could incrementally rise by 3.5 cents more by 2013 to pay off road-work debt.
The bill's sponsors scrapped a plan to link the gas tax to inflation, which would have let it go up even more on a yearly basis without a vote of the Legislature.
The reduction in the possible tax hikes forced the bill's backers to lower the 10-year price tag of the bill from $8.4 billion to just shy of $7.8 billion.
Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Steve Murphy, DFL-Red Wing, said the initial approach of tying the tax to inflation troubled lawmakers who felt the Legislature shouldn't put the tax on autopilot.
He said the new method should help win some Republican votes, which is essential if lawmakers have hopes of overriding a threatened veto from GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
If the original had become law, the gas tax could have hit 31.4 cents by 2018. The new bill caps it at 28.5 cents without further legislative action.
The change didn't seem to alter Pawlenty's view of the bill.
"They've made it very clear that they believe I'm irrelevant to the discussion, and they're going to put a bill on my desk that fits their definition of what they want to do and believe they can override my veto," he said. "I wish that wasn't the case but that appears to be the trajectory they're on."
To achieve a veto override in the the House, Democrats need to sway at least five Republicans if every DFLer is a "yes" vote, which isn't guaranteed. In the Senate, Democrats could override a veto on their own if all their members stick together.
Sen. Steve Dille, R-Dassel, said removing the link to inflation makes the bill more palatable. "I would rather vote for a bigger gas tax right out of the chute than indexing it," he said.
There are other sticking points.
Chief among them is a potential half-percent increase in the Twin Cities metropolitan area sales tax, which would go mostly for upgrades to bus routes and commuter rail lines. Eventually, the higher sales tax could spread to 11 counties that ring the seven-county metropolitan area if other county boards opt in.
The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce's Erin Sexton said the influential business group can't support a sales tax increase of that size.
"If we are going to go down this road we would like to see it at a much lower rate," she said.
The chamber has broken ranks with Pawlenty by supporting a gas tax increase of up to 7.5 cents, a split that has helped stir speculation that more Republican legislators could vote to trump Pawlenty's likely veto.
The bill would also raise registration fees on newly purchased vehicles.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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