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Capitol View®
Tim Pugmire

Dayton pushes railroad safety plan

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railsafety
Gov. Mark Dayton stood with local government officials and lawmakers to highlight the need for railroad safety improvements. Tim Pugmire|MPR News

DFL Gov. Mark Dayton says railroads need to pay a proportionate share of the cost of safety improvements along the congested tracks used by oil trains.

Dayton held a news conference Friday with local government officials and state lawmakers to highlight his proposal to impose new fees and property tax increases on the railroads to help pay for those projects.

He also released a list of 75 grade crossing improvements.

Dayton said he knows that railroads don’t like his plan.

“No one likes paying more taxes,” Dayton said. “But this is an enormous expense, hundreds of millions of dollars that’s being forced on the state of Minnesota, state government, on local governments, on businesses, on citizens. And for the railroads to resist paying even a minimal part of that additional cost to me is just unacceptable.”

Dayton said grade separation projects in Coon Rapids, Moorhead, Prairie Island and Willmar are particularly urgent. He said he’ll include $76 million for those projects in his bonding bill proposal later this month.

Another bonding bill proposal would provide $3.1 million for a new training facility at Camp Ripley to prepare emergency personnel to respond to oil train derailments. The training was mandated in state law last year.

“This venue would be hands-on training for the first responders,” said Maj. Gen. Richard Nash, adjutant general of the Minnesota National Guard. “The closest place that we have now to train our first responders and railroad personnel is over 400 miles away.”

Rep. Paul Marquart, DFL-Dilworth, said oil train traffic from North Dakota has ushered in a new age of railroad transportation and safety. He said local communities now have a much smaller margin of error.

“It just takes one 30,000 gallon oil tanker to derail and explode and you have a catastrophe,” Marquart said.

No Republican lawmakers attended the event.

House Transportation Committee Chair Tim Kelly, R-Red Wing, said in a written statement that he appreciated the governor bringing the issue forward.

“While the governor and I agree that our railroad crossings need improvements, the funding source is still the main issue,” Kelly wrote. “We can do more to improve rail safety in our communities and railroad crossing upgrades will be addressed in our upcoming transportation funding proposal."

Officials with the Minnesota Regional Railroad Association have said the proposed tax increases would hurt consumers and businesses that ship by rail. They also contend the tax would violate federal law.