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Capitol View®
Catharine Richert

MN Chamber raises questions about road funding

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With only a few weeks left in the legislative session and with no end in sight to a debate over transportation funding, the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce is raising new questions about how much money the state needs for road and bridge construction.

The group's own analysis says that long-term funding needs may be overstated by as much as $4.5 billion over the next 20 years.

The analysis is based on a 2012 Transportation Finance Advisory Committee report that has served as the backbone of a largely DFL argument that the state needs $6 billion in new revenue over 10 years to support roads and bridge construction. Gov. Mark Dayton and DFL lawmakers have argued in favor of a new gas tax to generate the revenue.

“Since the beginning of this debate, many have called for an independent review of TFAC’s findings,” said Bentley Graves, director of transportation policy for the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce and spokesman for the business associations. “There is no doubt that additional investment is warranted, but this analysis raises a number of important questions for policy-makers and stakeholders to consider.”

The Chamber specifically points to a 5 percent inflation factor used by the Minnesota Department of Transportation to estimate funding needs. The report was prepared by Accenture.

"That’s at the upper end of inflation factors used by the Federal Highway Administration and others in assessing transportation needs," the Chamber wrote in a press release. "Using a more reasonable 2.5 percent inflation factor, which is closer to what other organizations use, would reduce the projected $12 billion, 20-year unmet need for Minnesota roads and bridges by $4.5 billion."

Senate Transportation Committee Chair Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, said the report was "cooked up."

"It's not a credible report at all," Dibble said. "It's a political document designed to achieve a political goal... to defeat the transportation bill."

In 2008, the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce played an instrumental role in overriding a veto of an increase in the gas tax by then Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

Dayton and Senate Democrats support a more than $10 billion road, bridge and transit funding package that includes a new gas tax. But House Republicans are at the other end of the spectrum. Earlier this week, they passed a $7 billion transportation package that relies on general fund dollars and borrowing.

Dayton and other groups that back the new gas tax were not immediately available for comment.

You can read the Chamber's entire analysis below.