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Springtime: Potholes or possibilities?

By Peter Hutchinson

Ah! Spring in Minnesota. The Twins are back. Crocuses are in bloom. And so are the car jarring, axle-breaking potholes that turn highways into an automotive slalom course. While the Legislature and governor once again argue over what to do, our roads are falling apart right beneath our wheels. They had a chance to fix this mess in 2005 but failed. It's time to get it fixed and fixed right.

It's not a tax, it's a user fee. The key to success is at hand - road user impact fees. Back in 2005 Gov. Pawlenty showed us how to transform what was a tax into a fee. Back then we witnessed the magic of turning the cigarette tax into a health impact fee and using it to plug a hole in the budget.

At that time the governor offered a set of detailed criteria to separate a tax from a user fee. Let's use 'em again. Most of the "taxes" in today's transportation bills better conform to the governor's stated definition than the tax (sorry, fee) that he embraced in 2005. The gas tax and annual license-tab fee increases proposed this year would be collected from all those who use the roads and would go entirely to improving the transportation system they depend on every day. A user fee if ever there was one.

Ask anyone on the street where we get the biggest chunk of the money to maintain Minnesota roads today. Invariably, they say "the gas tax." Wrong. It's the local property tax that accounts for $1.4 billion every year to build, repair and maintain county and city roads. We are using a tax to do what user fees could and should be doing.

Our money could attract federal money. Minnesota roads are eligible for several billion (yes, billion!) dollars in federal matching funds over the next five years. But Minnesota first has to come up with a match. Without the match, Minnesota transportation officials have had no choice but to cancel or defer a growing number of projects. We're leaving needed money on the table.

We're headed for a cliff. Remember Thelma and Louise: good people who did bad things and decided to just end it by driving over the cliff. That's become our state's highway strategy. Gov. Pawlenty's borrow-and-spend approach goosed up construction spending over recent years but the money runs out this summer. Then, the cliff. We need sustained investment, not IOUs.

So here's what we need now. Spring should be a time for possibilities, not potholes. This year there is the possibility to get it right on the future of our roads.

The borrow-and-spend philosophy of Gov. Pawlenty won't work by itself since eventually we have to pay back those huge loans and will have to rob other budgets and our kids to do so.

The tax-and-spend philosophy of the Democrats won't work by itself, either. They threw an increase in the sales tax into the mix. Dedicating some of what we already pay, maybe. A tax increase for everyone, not in the cards.

But there is a sensible combination that will work. Raise the road user impact fees (10 cents for gas plus license fees) and combine them with an affordable program of bonding. The combination will help take the jolt out of springtime on Minnesota roads.