Amid some grumbling, MN House committee approves massive transportation bill
News | Published on April 22, 2025 at 2:53pm EDT | Author: frazeevergas
0Elias Thomas
Report for Minnesota
After compromises and emotional discussions, the House Transportation Committee approved an omnibus budget bill, despite some committee members from both political parties expressing dissatisfaction with the contents.
The bill contains nearly $10 billion in spending over the next two fiscal years for roads, bridges, transit and airports. It also contains a host of policy measures, but some of the sharpest debate came over provisions that didn’t make it into the massive bill.
The bill includes many technical changes aimed to make roads safer and more affordable to build. The bill delays a greenhouse gas emissions assessment and reduces funding for mass transit.
Supporters of the emissions assessment tried to eliminate the delay, but the committee rejected their effort.
Witnesses and representatives at an April 11th committee meeting also expressed frustration over cuts made to funding for suicide prevention barriers on the Washington Ave. bridge on the University of Minnesota campus.
Rep. Jon Koznick, R-Lakeville, said it’s such an important issue that Hennepin County should have already funded the project on its own. Still, he and other committee members said they would continue to work on it.
The committee voted to make fuel and construction material deliveries exempt from taxes in an effort to lower the cost of state road construction projects.
Another part of the bill would increase the annual surcharge paid by electric vehicle owners from $75 to $150. The surcharge is intended to balance out how much electric vehicle owners pay towards state roads with the gas taxes paid by owners of conventional vehicles.
That part of the bill, along with the cuts to public transportation, including metro mobility, and the delay to the greenhouse gas assessment had some representatives concerned that the bill is going backwards.
Rep. Katie Jones, DFL-Minneapolis, proposed the amendment to prevent the delay of the greenhouse gas assessment and said it’s important to start taking steps towards sustainability.
“We don’t have a department of highways, we have a department of transportation,” Jones said. “It’s time to think differently about how people move, about how we deal with congestion, and to think holistically about the needs of all Minnesotans.”
Co-chair Erin Koegel, DFL-Spring Lake Park, said outright that she did not like the bill. She said she hopes it can be improved going forward.
“I am 100% committed to making this a better bill when it comes back to us,” Koegel said. “This isn’t the end, this is the starting point, and so I’m hoping that we can all work together in a collaborative and courteous way.”
The bill’s next stop is the House Taxes Committee.
Co-Chair Koznick compared the bill to a pizza and suggested he was more satisfied.
“I think everyone still loves pizza, but you don’t have to love all the ingredients,” Koznick said. “It’s a balanced transportation bill that makes Minnesota roads safer.”
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