Veto can’t stop voters from deciding road, transit spending

05/19/2005

Brian Bakst, Associated Press
May 20, 2005


A proposed constitutional amendment, overshadowed by the gas-tax debate and shielded from Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s transportation bill veto, will let Minnesota voters decide next year whether to earmark vehicle taxes for roads, bridges and transit.

When the Senate passed the House transportation bill Wednesday they were also giving the needed consent to put the amendment on the November 2006 ballot. It doesn’t matter that Pawlenty struck down the bill Thursday that contained the proposed amendment.

Under Minnesota’s process for updating its Constitution, governors don’t have the final say and only a majority of each legislative chamber is needed to put a question on the ballot. A 1994 attorney general’s opinion said a veto doesn’t affect an amendement.

So, citizens will be asked whether to permanently dedicate the Motor Vehicle Sales Tax to transportation purposes. If a majority says yes, about two-thirds of the money would be set aside beginning in 2007, gradually rising to 100 percent by 2011. The tax now takes in more than $550 million a year and is expected to top $700 million within 10 years.

Here’s the catch: The amendment requires that at least 40 cents of every dollar go to mass transit and no more than 60 cents go to highways and bridges. It’s a split likely to be much more popular among Twin Cities lawmakers than those in Greater Minnesota.

“It’s reasonable. It acknowledges we have needs in both areas,’’ said Rep. Frank Hornstein, DFL-Minneapolis. “It’s balanced.’’

But the split has some long-time supporters of the constitutional dedication already calling for its defeat.

“Some of them are having buyer’s remorse,’’ said House Speaker Steve Sviggum, R-Kenyon.

Added Rep. Mary Liz Holberg, R-Lakeville: “In its current form, it goes down. No doubt.’’

There is time — either this year or next — for lawmakers to pass a new bill with new language. It wasn’t immediately clear whether they could edit the question or whether two competing questions will end up on the ballot.

If the tax dedication succeeds, state leaders will have to cope with a budget hole of hundreds of millions of dollars a year. The vehicle sales tax now flows into the general treasury, which pays for education, health care and other state programs.

Since 1858, Minnesota voters have considered 211 amendments to the Constitution, approving 118 of them. The last three appeared on the 1998 ballot and all passed.