Gas tax increase vetoed

"Features"

05/20/2005

Conrad Defiebre, Star Tribune
May 20, 2005

Political theater props and partisan potshots abounded Thursday as Gov. Tim Pawlenty vetoed a $7.8 billion transportation bill that he said not only violated his no-new-taxes pledge but also is rife with multimillion-dollar drafting errors.

Backed by 18 Republican legislators and a poster illustrating price effects of the bill’s 10-cent-a-gallon gasoline tax increase, Pawlenty held an unusual veto ceremony before reporters and TV cameras in his crowded State Capitol office.

In the hall outside, DFLers erected signs reading “Road closed by Pawlenty” and “Pawlenty roadblock.” Later, Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson denounced the governor’s action while standing beside orange road construction cones, reflective vests and a panoramic picture of clogged traffic with the legend: “End gridlock now.”

Firing back, the governor said DFLers “will try to blame me for traffic congestion even though they haven’t done diddly for 15 years.”

Each side accused the other of political posturing at the expense of historic progress on Minnesota’s transportation funding gap, variously pegged at $700 million to $1.8 billion a year.

“Governor Roadblock, take down the barriers and start to compromise,” said Johnson, DFL-Willmar. “We got one big goose egg out of the governor.”

Pawlenty said DFL legislators ignored his repeated veto warnings and delivered the proposed gas tax increase in a clear effort to embarrass him. “What other motivation could there be?” he said. “It certainly wasn’t about getting a bill done that could be signed into law.”

On one positive note, the governor praised the bill’s proposed constitutional amendment to dedicate all motor vehicle sales taxes to transportation by 2012, if voters approve in next year’s general election.

He called it the cornerstone of his own plan, with a potential to boost transportation funding by more than $300 million a year.

Because constitutional amendments are not subject to veto by the governor, that provision goes forward, although not without controversy.

House Transportation Finance Chairwoman Mary Liz Holberg, R-Lakeville, who stood with the governor Thursday, said she would oppose the constitutional measure unless its funding formula is changed to guarantee that most of the money goes to roads. As currently drafted, it could direct it all to transit, she said.

But the constitutional amendment was Pawlenty’s proposal, said House Transportation Policy Chairman Ron Erhardt, R-Edina, who did not join the governor’s news conference.

It was Erhardt who sponsored the vetoed funding package and won its House approval as a floor amendment with help from DFLers and several other breakaway Republicans.

Erhardt acknowledged that his amendment contained several mistakes pointed out by Pawlenty, most significant, the omission of a transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars from the general fund to finance continuing transportation work. The governor said that alone would have warranted his veto.

In addition, the measure would have shifted more than $100 million a year from highways to general spending, which both Pawlenty and Erhardt said would be unconstitutional.

The timing of the gas tax increase also had a glitch: As written, the legislation called for 5-cent rises on June 1 this year and next. Erhardt said he intended the second nickel to take effect in 2007—a $150 million difference.

“All of these things could have been fixed” in a routine corrections bill, Erhardt said.