Gov. Mark Dayton
There are mixed messages on how hard Governor Mark Dayton might push for new funding for transportation projects when the legislature goes back in session in early March. Dayton’s Management and Budget Commissioner Myron Frans told a Senate panel Wednesday “the governor will issue a proposed transportation bill… the same bill that he introduced last year, in 2015.” That comes after Dayton said last December that “a gas tax increase is dead,” given the state’s large budget surplus. A spokesman for Dayton says the governor is letting the plan he put forward last year stand on its own merits and is waiting for House Republicans to offer up their plan. Republicans say they did — last year — and it does the job without a gas tax increase.