Pro gas tax group launches radio ads

A group supporting a gas tax hike to improve roads and ease congestion took their case to the capitol on Thursday.

Progress in Motion, the group behind a new series of radio ads supporting the 10 cent per gallon gas tax hike, made its case to the Capitol media on Thursday.

The fuel tax is one part of the transportation bills that have passed the Minnesota House and Senate already this year, but Governor Pawlenty has threatened to veto the tax hike.

The group?s major backers include the Transportation Alliance and the AFSCME state employees union. Among those who spoke at the news conference were Hennepin County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin, and Darren Trast, a MnDOT road maintenance worker and member of local 2792.

Bob Vanasek, head of the MN Inter-County Government Association, told reporters funding for new highway projects and maintenance dropped significantly since 2006, and that lawmakers and the Governor should not be allowed to leave without a major investment in transportation and transit.

"Don?t go home without one," he said should be the theme of the 2007 session. Vanasek said the Department of Transportation is constantly forced to choose between basic maintenance and new construction.

A spokesperson for the AFSME union, Jennifer Lovaasen, said she?s spending more time stuck in traffic than she is with her family.

"By the time I get home from work it?s already time to put the grandkids to bed," Lovaasen said.

The ads, which began airing statewide on Monday, says supporters prefer a "pay as you go" approach to major road projects and transit. The ad tells listeners the Governor?s plan, to rely more heavily on bonding for roads, will result in a large debt load which will be taken out of future highway spending.

The Governor, in defense of his plan to veto the fuel tax, says the state?s money goes further with bonding because the state can avoid the construction inflation costs by borrowing now instead of waiting until the money is collected.

His adversaries say it?s not an either/or question, that meeting the state?s unmet highway and transit needs will take more fuel tax money and bonding.

Minnesota?s fuel tax has been 20-cents per gallon since 1988, the last time the legislature passed an increase.

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