Lieutenant governor makes pitch for more transportation funding

Lt. Gov. Tina Smith told a group of elected officials and business leaders Tuesday in St. Cloud that more funding for transportation is critical for fast-growing central Minnesota to continue prospering.

Smith spoke at a transportation summit sponsored by the Greater St. Cloud Development Corporation.

"Everyone in this room is in violent agreement that we need to make progress on a transportation system that is comprehensive, that includes transit and roads and bridges and air connections," she said.

Smith voiced support for Gov. Mark Dayton's proposal for a $3 million demonstration project to operate the Northstar commuter rail line to St. Cloud for up to six months.

The project would allow one additional train to run each day from the Amtrak station in downtown St. Cloud to Target Field in Minneapolis each way, a 70-minute nonstop trip.

The rail service currently ends in Big Lake and has struggled to increase ridership. Smith said the project would provide a relatively low-cost opportunity to see how running trains to St. Cloud would work.

Smith also called for increased investment in roads, including the expansion of I-94 between the Twin Cities and St. Cloud, as well as a study aimed at increasing use of the St. Cloud Regional Airport.

Republican legislators support using dollars from the general fund and a sales tax on auto parts and car rentals for road and bridge projects.

Rep. Jeff Howe, R-Rockville, told the summit audience that most Minnesotans don't support an increase in the gas tax to pay for transportation, as Dayton has proposed, when the state has a $1.65 billion surplus.

"And when you're sitting there with a big surplus, they have a little bit of animosity to getting taxed a little more. And when is enough?" Howe said.

Howe said he supports bringing Northstar to St. Cloud, but said he's perplexed why the schedule would be different than the existing one. "If it's a pilot project, shouldn't you be running the program and the route that you're going to run? Otherwise what is it telling you?" Rep. Jim Knoblach, R-St. Cloud, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, introduced an unsuccessful bill last year to operate two trips a day to St. Cloud.

Knoblach called the governor's proposal "interesting." He noted that the cost estimate to extend the rail line has dropped from last year's estimates, when the governor's office said it couldn't be done without millions in additional funding.

"I'm encouraged that the governor is interested in it, and all of us at the Legislature are looking to learn more about it," Knoblach said.