No surprise today when a committee in the Republican-controlled Minnesota Senate voted down the revenue-raising parts of Governor Tim Walz’s transportation funding plan — including increases in the gas tax, tab fees and motor vehicle sales tax. Minneapolis Democrat Scott Dibble objected, “I frankly have never seen anything like this in the entire 18 years I’ve been in the legislature, where the fullness of a governor’s proposal is simply thwarted and not permitted to come forward.”
Senate Republicans’ transportation point man, Hutchinson Senator Scott Newman responded he wanted the committee to hear testimony on “what I believe to be the four major funding sources in the governor’s proposal.”
The Senate committee vote comes the day before the governor’s State of the State address, in which transportation funding will likely figure prominently.