The Citizens League is trying to find a bit of common ground over a contentious and divisive issue looming at the Capitol: the way public transit is funded in the metro area.
The St. Paul-based nonpartisan organization released an exhaustive 151-page report this week that explores current practices for funding bus and train service, and offers different scenarios on how each might be improved.
“People were eager to talk about the topic,” said Sean Kershaw, executive director of the Citizens League. He hopes the “highly realistic proposal” will “help break the logjam” at the Legislature, where transit talk often divides lawmakers along party lines.
The tome is the work of a diverse 21-member committee representing those from the metro’s inner cities to the far-flung suburbs. The idea was to craft “sound recommendations” that actually can be accomplished — instead of just arguing, Kershaw said.
Among those recommendations: A two-tier sales tax in the metro area, where taxpayers in cities with heavy transit demands would pay more than those who live in areas with sparse or nonexistent services. The report’s authors suspect this idea could garner bipartisan support at the Capitol.
Metropolitan Council Chair Adam Duininck said the two-tier taxation idea was floated during the 2016 session. “It’s an interesting idea, I was open to it then, and I’m open to it now. It warrants a good discussion,” he said. (Duininck did not serve on the Citizens League committee, but appeared before it.)
“One of the main concerns I hear is, ‘Why should I pay a sales tax [for transit] if I don’t get any benefit?’ ” Duininck continued. “I sympathize, but even if you don’t get on a bus or a train, we, as a region, benefit from a strong transit system. It helps us attract and retain jobs.”
Other suggestions in the Citizens League report include a transportation-related general fund account earmarked for transit, but with no reduction in the current base appropriation. Another idea, not wholly embraced by the committee, involves metro counties raising the current transit sales tax to a half cent for transportation purposes, and the state imposing a quarter-cent sales tax for transit operations.
The report points out that short-term political and policy questions are “complicated” by global and demographic trends that will shape transportation policy in the years to come. These include baby boomers leaving the workforce and living longer (while losing their ability to drive), and millennials demanding access to public transit.
Another game-changer that will surface in the next 15 years: Self-driving cars, which “will certainly impact what we call ‘transit’ and everything related to mobility,” the report states.
The Citizens League effort was prompted by “lawmakers’ inability to pass a comprehensive transportation package during the 2016 legislative session,” following a stalemate over state funding for the controversial Southwest light-rail project.
Kershaw said the report will be given to legislators as well as Gov. Mark Dayton.
The League’s analytical team was led by Peter Bell, former chair of the Met Council from 2008 to 2011, with former state Rep. Ann Lenczewski, DFL-Bloomington, serving as vice chair.
Kershaw said there was heated debate throughout the process, but everyone stuck with the committee to the end.
The discussion at a breakfast meeting sponsored by the League Tuesday at the Downtowner Woodfire Grill in St. Paul demonstrated the highly divergent opinions on the topic of transit funding. One man asked whether the Met Council has a plan for future transit projects in the metro. Another suggested that the current system should be decommissioned and replaced by a ride-sharing service such as Uber.
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