MINNEAPOLIS -- From the light rail to city buses, metro transportation could cost passengers up to $4 more if Rep. Mike Beard gets his way.
To help the state deal with its $5 billion budget deficit Beard, who chairs the House Transportation Finance Committee, is proposing a transportation finance bill that will cut $120 million in general fund appropriation for the Metropolitan Council. Beard says the money is better used somewhere else.
"Get transit out of the general fund and actually use the general fund on other things like hospitals and nursing homes and higher education...things that the general fund is traditionally used for," he said.
In a letter to Beard last week Susan Haigh, chair of the Met Council, said the cut would eliminate the organization's most stable source of funding. Haigh wrote they would be forced to raise their fares or cut services and lay-off more than 500 employees.
However, Beard says that's not true.
"They'll get more money than they had the last time around and they're still complaining it's not enough," he said.
While the proposed bill will cut $120 million from the Met Council it would also appropriate money from the motor vehicle tax fund as well as a five county sales tax fund to help fill the hole. Those two special funds will provide the Met Council with $98 million, according to Beard.
The caveat though is that the money from those funds can't be spent on light rail or commuter rails. The money can only be used on buses.
The bill is expected to make its way to the House floor this week.
(Copyright 2011 by KARE. All Rights Reserved.)