Guest Column by Christopher Shoff

All across Minnesota, cities and counties have used a local option sales tax to fund important projects and services.  Minnesotans have used a local option sales tax to fund tourism in Lanesboro, sewer and water improvements as well as a new police and fire station in Hermantown, the Minneapolis Convention Center and various watersheds across the state, including our local Shell Rock River Watershed. Nineteen counties across Minnesota, including Freeborn, have enacted a local option sales tax to fund transportation needs in their respective counties.  Many more counties across the state are considering this transportation funding method for their abundant transportation needs.

Freeborn County recently hosted a regional transportation meeting on April 1.  Much of what is discussed during these meetings in rural Minnesota focuses on the transportation needs of roads and bridges. During the meeting that day, Hennepin County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin brought forward a transit proposal that could benefit all of Minnesota: an increase to the metro transit sales tax.

This metro-area only sales tax increase proposal talked about during our recent local meeting currently resides in the transportation bill before the state Legislature. The idea is to increase the metro area only sales tax by .5 percent and would then eliminate both the state’s capital and operating costs of transit projects.  The state’s transit expenses comes from either the general fund or through bonding. The state currently invests 10 percent of the capital costs and 50 percent of the operating costs. Simply put, this proposal means the metro region will pay for metro transit.

A 2013 survey of Minnesota Chambers of Commerce statewide found that almost 80 percent believed that Minnesota “would benefit from having an expanded and improved public transit system, such as rail and buses.” That same poll found that 65 percent of respondents supported an increase in the metro area sales tax to fund transit.

If this metro sales tax increase is implemented, it would provide a one-time reduction to the 2014-15 general fund of $46.8 million, would fund the remaining state share of the Southwest Light Rail Transit capital costs of $135 million and would relieve the general fund of operating and capital costs of both current and future transit projects.

We live in a state, that while small in population, boasts 18 Minnesota-based Fortune 500 companies. We live in a competitive economy both nationally and internationally. We all know that Minnesota is a wonderful place to live, work, recreate and play. But the Minneapolis-St Paul metropolitan area competes nationally with Atlanta, Boston, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver and Houston.  These areas all have a regional transit tax of one cent while the Minneapolis-St Paul region currently has a one-quarter of one cent regional transit tax.  The currently proposed increase before the Legislature would increase this transit tax to three quarters of one cent.

An enlightening part of the discussion on April 1st was to illustrate all the companies from across the state that have worked on the big construction projects in the Twin Cities and the workers that reside all across the state that have been a part of these projects.

This year the Association of Minnesota Counties theme is “One Minnesota!” We believe in the old adage that a “rising tide lifts all boats.”  What benefits one particular area of the state benefits the rest of the state, whether it be urban, suburban or rural. We in county government pride ourselves with common sense solutions to public policy problems. It is our hope that the state uses the common sense solutions proposed to grant the Minneapolis-St Paul metropolitan region the mechanism to pay for transit themselves. This will allow the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan region to better compete with other metro regions across the United States while simultaneously taking the burden off the general fund or bonding from the rest of Minnesota to pay for metro transit.

 

Christopher N. Shoff is the 4th District Freeborn County commissioner and Association of Minnesota Counties immediate past president.