Now that 1,262,855 Minnesotans -- or 57 percent of Tuesday's voters -- have said "yes" to a constitutional amendment dedicating the motor vehicle sales tax to transportation, will the matter be heading back to court?
No, thanks to a decision we'll happily interpret as a gesture of reconciliation by the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities, the primary group that opposed the amendment.
At a meeting in Alexandria concluding today, Greater Minnesota officials who backed a court challenge to the amendment before the vote decided to move on and seek clarification of the amendment's ambiguous language from the incoming Legislature. At issue is the language dedicating "at least 40 percent [of the tax money] for public transit assistance and not more than 60 percent for highway purposes" -- a division that sparked fears in highway-dependent rural communities that 100 percent of the tax could go to transit.
"We need to see the 60/40 designation statutorily so that we in outstate Minnesota can feel more comfort," Moorhead Mayor Mark Voxland told the News Tribune's editorial page from the meeting yesterday.
We're sure those numbers can be worked out and however it's divvied up, it's important to remember the amendment doesn't create new money, it only reallocates it.
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So the larger issue, Voxland says, is how to find the $1.7 billion the state needs for road repair. Add to that the funds needed for transit projects ranging from metro-area light rail to the Duluth-to Twin Cities rail line.
One opportunity exists in federal funding made more available by the region's new muscle in Washington, including Rep. Jim Oberstar's promotion to head of the House Transportation Committee and other chairmanships awaiting regional congressmen.
"I'm thrilled for Oberstar," Voxland said, noting, however, that federal money comes with strings attached. "Even if he can bring us lots of money for Minnesota, we have to match it for 20 percent."
Nonetheless, the opportunity is there, and ways to match it need to be explored.
Voxland said he'll even consider a bake sale.
"Yeah," he said. "I'll make the caramel roll. You make the bread."
