MN House Democrats Pass Omnibus Transportation Bill Without Bipartisan Support

FARGO, N.D. (Valley News Live) - Minnesota House Democrats passed their Omnibus Transportation bill on Saturday without bipartisan support.

The bill would raise taxes over $1.6 billion in transportation related tax increases.

This includes linking the gas tax to the Highway Construction Cost Index resulting in a 5-cent-per-gallon increase over four years, a billion-dollar light rail tax hike by raising the Metro Sales tax by a half percent and hundreds of millions in other tax and fee hikes.

“It is insensitive of us to propose tax increases when people are struggling to recover from the financial affects of the pandemic and when Minnesota has a massive state budget surplus,” said Rep. John Petersburg, R-Waseca, Republican Transportation Lead. “We should be leveraging that surplus and prioritizing federal relief dollars to make the best investments for our transportation future, not raising taxes on gasoline, increasing license tab fees, increasing the sales tax for transit, and the sales tax of motor vehicles sales.”