Metro Transit gets major boost from 0.75% metro-wide sales tax; St. Paul roads repair, Stillwater parks, in doubt
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Transit advocates are hailing a proposed metro-wide sales tax increase that is expected to be signed into law by Gov. Tim Walz this week as an unprecedented win for efforts to restore and expand Metro Transit’s bus and rail network, which has suffered bruising challenges since the outset of the pandemic.
The 0.75% sales tax increase included in the proposed transportation omnibus bill would raise more than $440 million per year for public transit spending, roughly equivalent to the Metropolitan Council’s annual transportation budget. Another 17% of the tax revenue — as much as $90 million annually — would flow to the seven metro counties to fund county road maintenance, as well as bicycle and pedestrian improvements.
“I am thrilled by this bill,” said Sam Rockwell, executive director of Move Minnesota, a St. Paul-based transit advocacy organization. “It’s an incredible bill. It’s a transformational bill. I think it’s a nation-leading bill.”
Together with a metro-wide .25% sales tax increase for housing programs, the Legislature in total is presenting the governor with a 1% sales tax increase across the seven metro counties.
Other transportation measures
The bill requires Metro Transit to decrease penalties for fare evaders from criminal misdemeanors, which currently go on criminal records, to petty misdemeanors comparable to parking tickets, allowing TRIP agents, or civilian transit ambassadors, to collect fares instead of relying exclusively on sworn officers.
It also requires the transit authority to launch two fare-free routes as a pilot program from July 1 of this year to December 31, 2024, borrowing a page from Boston and other municipalities that have experimented with free transit services to speed boarding and encourage transit use.
Additional changes modify the rider code of conduct, add new expectations for bus and light rail cleaning and repair, and hold the Minnesota Department of Transportation and the Met Council, the metro’s regional planning agency, to existing state climate provisions when assessing major projects.
For several years running, Ramsey County officials have chafed at their rising contribution to Green Line light rail operations, which totaled $6 million this year. As a result of the new legislation, “Metro Transit will pick up operations and maintenance costs,” said Trista MatasCastillo, who chairs the Ramsey County Board of Commissioners.
Metro Transit, which is managed by the Met Council — the metro’s regional planning agency — reduced both transit frequency and the overall number of routes during the pandemic, and passenger ridership has never fully reasserted itself. The transit authority, which has suffered bus and trail delays blamed on a severe shortage of drivers, is just beginning to restore routes following a major hiring push.
The .75% metro-wide sales tax “will close their operating gap and be a major net increase,” Rockwell said.
The funding boost would come at a sensitive time for Metro Transit, which has been hunting for a new general manager since the departure of Wes Kooistra in February. Mary Bogie plans to step down shortly as the Met Council’s regional administrator, or top manager.
Rockwell credited two Minneapolis lawmakers — state Sen. Scott Dibble and state Rep. Frank Hornstein, both members of the Democrat-Farmer-Labor party — with leading efforts to move the metro-wide sales tax for transit funding toward becoming state law, as well as advocacy organizations such as the Sierra Club, ISAIAH and the 100% Campaign, a climate advocacy coalition.
The final vote on the omnibus transportation bill was 69-61 in the House and 34-32 in the Senate.
“They just were pushing this for years,” Rockwell said. “There was a really large advocacy community working to expand people’s conception of what was possible.”
How cities, counties are impacted
The prospect of a new metro-wide sales tax has been criticized by business advocates and Republican lawmakers. It’s also raised questions among municipal leaders — including fellow DFLers — who had planned to ask their residents to back city-specific or county-specific sales tax increases for major projects.
St. Paul officials had hoped to go to the ballot this November to seek a 1% citywide tax increase to fund the reconstruction of 24 arterial road segments from Pelham Boulevard to Ruth Street, as well as to support parks and rec projects.
The current state, city and county sales tax in St. Paul — at 7.875%, already among the highest in Minnesota — would increase to 8.875% after the state imposes the 1% metro-wide increase for transit and housing. That could undermine efforts to get St. Paul voters to approve an additional 1% increase for road repair at the ballot box.
Woodbury hoped to seek a half-cent sales tax to fund a new public safety campus, but it’s unclear whether the city council will still pursue it at the ballot box this November. Following community outreach, city staff will weigh the pros and cons of moving that spending to property taxes, instead.
“That is a good question and one for which I do not currently have an answer,” said Woodbury Mayor Anne Burt, in an email. “There are a few options available for us to finance the much-needed public safety facilities expansion, and (a voter referendum for a) local option sales tax approved by the Legislature gives us a tool in the toolbox.”
Other cities have their own projects in mind. Cottage Grove wants a half-cent tax to fund improvements to Hamlet Park, the River Oaks Golf Course and the Mississippi Dunes Park project. Rice County is seeking a .375% tax to back a public safety facility.
“When the city of Stillwater was exploring funding options for riverfront parks, it was unaware of the metro-wide tax,” acknowledged Joe Kohlmann, the city administrator for Stillwater, on Monday. “This will certainly be a factor in further consideration, if any.”
