Relating to transportation

ARTICLE 1 - TRANSPORTATION AND PUBLIC SAFETY APPROPRIATIONS

Providing a summary of appropriations; stating that all appropriations in this article are from the trunk highway fund unless another fund is specified; appropriating money to the department of transportation (DOT) for multimodal systems including aeronautics, airport development and assistance, aviation support and services, for transit, passenger rail planning, analysis, design and engineering, for freight, for Safe Routes to School, for state roads operations and maintenance, program planning and delivery, for state road construction for economic recovery funds, corridors of commerce, state road construction, highway debt service, electronic communications, local roads, county state aids, municipal state aids, for agency management, services and buildings, providing for transfers, providing for use for sate road construction appropriations, providing for contingent appropriations; appropriating money to the metropolitan council and the department of public safety for administration and related services including the office of communications, public safety support, technology and support service, the state patrol, commercial vehicle enforcement, capitol security, vehicle crimes unit, driver and vehicle services, traffic safety, pipeline safe, emergency management, criminal apprehension, fire marshal, alcohol and gambling enforcement, office of justice programs, emergency communication networks, public safety answering points, medical resource communications centers, ARMER debt service, state backbone operation costs and improvements, tort claims, the eworkplace telework program and bond sale expenses

ARTICLE 2 - TRANSPORTATION FINANCE

Broadening the wheelage tax authorization, making it statewide and modifying the amount that can be imposed; increasing the annual wheelage tax rate; eliminating the requirement that the proceeds of the wheelage tax must be paid to the commissioner of management and budget for deposit to the credit of the county wheelage tax fund; requiring the registrar of motor vehicles to issue a monthly warrant in favor of each county that levies the wheelage tax; increasing the filing fee that a drivers license agent may charge and retain for each drivers license application; imposing a motor fuels gross receipts tax on the wholesale business of selling the means or substance used for propelling vehicles on the highways of this state; allowing a credit or refund to the distributor of tax attributable to gross receipts from sales of gasoline or special fuel that is for export, purchased by the federal government, for residential heating, destroyed by accident in the distributor possession, taxed in error or sold for storage in an on-farm bulk storage tank; requiring a distributor to file returns and make tax payments on a quarterly basis; providing for audit, assessment, refund, penalty, appeal, and other administrative matters; crediting the gross receipts tax proceeds to the highway user tax distribution fund; reducing the rate of the tax on gasoline by six cents per gallon, with corresponding reductions on E85 and M85; reducing proportionally the rate of tax on special fuels for gasoline, undyed diesel fuel, and special fuel in distributor storage; providing that gasoline and special fuel excise taxes and the gross receipts tax are in lieu of all other taxes imposed on the business of selling gasoline or special fuel; changing the distribution of motor vehicle lease sales tax revenues; modifying provisions governing imposition, administration, and use of the metropolitan area sales tax for transit; imposing a local sales tax on all metropolitan counties; requiring all counties in the metropolitan area to enter into an amended joint powers agreement; reducing the maximum amount of net sales tax the counties may use for joint powers administrative expenses; requiring that grants must be paid out of proceeds of the sales tax along with bond proceeds; relating to the GEARS committee, adding responsibilities to award grants to local units of government for bicycle, trail, and pedestrian infrastructure and safe routes to school infrastructure and to cities for planning of land use and transportation links, streetcar development, and bicycle/pedestrian connections; specifying that board grants must be made only for transit way development and operations, including Bottineau Boulevard, and to fund grants made by GEARS planning and infrastructure for bicycles, trails, and pedestrians, and land use/transportation links, streetcar developments, and bicycle/pedestrian connections; adding bonds issued and board actions to the required report to the legislature; specifying allocation of revenues generated by the metropolitan area transit sales tax; specifying the net transit sales tax proceeds as payment of debt service, specified funding to the metropolitan council for transit operations, percent of the operating subsidies for named transit lines to the council, an amount to fund the GEARS grants to the board, money for Southwest light rail transit, an amount to the board equal to a quarter cent sales tax and $20 excise tax per motor vehicle transaction less specified amounts, an amount to the center for transportation studies for transit research and remaining revenues subject to joint certification; specifying the joint certification process; specifying the allowable uses and priorities for money remitted to the council for bus and rail transit operations and maintenance, including suburban transit, and transit expansion, including bus service, streetcars, suburban transit, arterial bus rapid transit, and affordable transit fares;
requiring the commissioner of revenue to remit sales tax proceeds on a monthly basis to a fiscal agent who will divide the money among the accounts for the council, the board, and for joint certification; providing for funding during a transition period; modifying the Greater Minnesota local sales tax for transportation by removing the requirement of approval by voter referendum, and substitutes approval by resolution of the county board, following a public hearing; modifying the allowable uses of Greater Minnesota local sales tax for transportation proceeds to allow payment of operating costs of transit and capital costs of a safe route to school program; subjecting a gift transfer of a motor vehicle between individuals to motor vehicle sales tax, by removing the existing exemption; increasing the rate of motor vehicle sales tax from; increasing the in lieu tax on a purchase price of a collector passenger automobile or fire truck; changing the distribution of motor vehicle sales tax; reducing the cap of capital costs of a rail transit project that may be paid by a county regional railroad authority; allowing cities to create street maintenance districts and impose fees to pay for street maintenance in the district; defining maintenance; authorizing a city to establish a street maintenance district by ordinance to defray costs of municipal street maintenance by charging fees to all property located in the district; requiring that the total costs of street maintenance must be uniformly apportioned to all property in the district based on the classification of the property; requiring a city to adopt a plan, after notice and hearing, and to estimate maintenance costs before adopting a street maintenance district; requiring that fee revenues must be placed in a separate account and used only for projects located in the district and identified in the street maintenance plan; requiring that the ordinance must provide for billing and payment of the fee on a specified basis; requiring a municipality to impose a street maintenance fee by ordinance; providing that imposing a street maintenance fee does not restrict a city from using other methods to pay costs of street maintenance, except that a city must not impose special assessments for projects funded with street improvement fees; prohibiting a city from imposing a street maintenance fee on an undeveloped parcel until the later of three years after substantial completion of paving the street or first occupation of a previously unoccupied structure; prohibiting a municipality from imposing a street maintenance fee on a parcel owned by an institution of public charity; authorizing regional bonding authority for the metropolitan council transit capital improvement program; authorizing the metropolitan council to issue revenue bonds to implement its transit capital improvement program and to refund bonds issued under this section; extending the sunset for the statutory appropriation of federal economic recovery funds

ARTICLE 3 - TRANSPORTATION AND PUBLIC SAFETY POLICY

Creating the corridors of commerce program; defining certain terms; requiring the commissioner of transportation (DOT) to establish a corridors of commerce program for trunk highway improvements and maintenance to improve commerce in the state; specifying eligibility categories for corridors of commerce, including capacity development and freight improvement; requiring the commissioner to establish eligibility requirements to include consistency with the statewide multimodal transportation plan, location of the project on an interregional corridor, placement in at least one eligibility category, and length of time until construction work can begin; requiring the commissioner to identify a process for identification, evaluation, and selection of projects; allowing the commissioner to include costs of operation and maintenance for a project in allocating funds; requiring the commissioner to submit an annual report on the corridors of commerce program to the chairs and ranking minority members of the legislative transportation committees; removing the prohibition on paying tort claims with trunk highway funds and adding payments to MN.IT Services in excess of actual costs incurred for trunk highway purposes as an unauthorized use of trunk highway funds; increasing the cap the commissioner may spend for research performed by the center for transportation studies; modifying provision the provision dividing the county state-aid highway (CSAH) fund between the excess sum and the apportionment sum; increasing the minimum pre-damage value to warrant classification of a motor vehicle as a high-value vehicle; increasing the fee for issuance of an original certificate of title, the amount of this fee that is paid into the vehicle services operating fund, and eliminating the fee and surcharge for transferring title and issuing a new certificate of title; modifying the provision relating to annual permits for overweight vehicles, authorizing a road authority to issue an annual permit for a vehicle or combination of vehicles with six or more axles to haul freight and operate with a gross vehicle weight of up to 90,000 pounds, or 99,000 pounds during periods of seasonal increase allowance, authorizing a road authority to issue an annual permit for a vehicle or combination of vehicles with seven or more axles to haul freight and operate with a gross vehicle weight of up to 97,000 pounds, or 99,000 pounds during periods of seasonal increase allowance; amending the license plate impoundment crime in the driving while impaired (DWI) law to allow a person subject to a plate impoundment order to drive a motor vehicle that is employer-owned and not equipped with specially coded plates or an ignition interlock device program; modifying the DWI law implied consent provision to provide that when a peace officer has probable cause to believe a person has committed a DWI-related criminal vehicular operation (CVO) violation, the officer is not required to give the implied consent advisory if the officer is not pursuing an implied consent revocation; providing that a person whose drivers license has been revoked or suspended for a DWI-related CVO offense is not eligible for reinstatement of driving privileges, until the person has submitted to the commissioner of public safety verification of the use of an ignition interlock device that meets statutory performance standards for the applicable time period; authorizing the commissioner of public safety to issue an instruction permit to an applicant who is enrolled in concurrent classroom and behind-the-wheel training and has completed 15 hours of classroom training; creating the novice driver education improvement task force to examine and compare Minnesota law and rules concerning driver education with the novice teen driver education and training administrative standards, identify discrepancies, and determine to what extent state law should be modified to conform with federal standards; specifying the drivers license revocation periods for DWI-related CVO convictions; requiring the commissioner of public safety to suspend the drivers licenses of a person for whom a peace officer has certified that probable cause exists to believe the person committed a DWI-related CVO offense or is formally charged with a first or second-degree manslaughter or CVO offense regardless of whether it was DWI-related, resulting from the operation of a motor vehicle; modifying the limited drivers license law to provide a cross-reference to new suspension language; amending the limited drivers license law to provide that the one-year waiting period for a limited license for CVO offenses applies only to non DWI-related CVO offense; amending the limited drivers license law to prohibit a limited license from being issued to a person whose drivers license was suspended or revoked for a DWI-related CVO offense; amending the ignition interlock law to include a person whose drivers license was suspended or revoked for a DWI-related CVO; creating the transportation economic development program (TED), requiring the commissioners of transportation (DOT) and employment and economic development (DEED) to provide competitive grants, with geographic balance, to projects in all modes of transportation that provide economic benefit, creating two transportation economic development accounts, one in the special revenue fund (for non-trunk highway funds) and one in the trunk highway fund, requiring the commissioners to publicize each solicitation among all eligible recipients and assist applicants in creating and submitting applications, requiring the commissioners to analyze project applicants according to economic impact performance measure, stating criteria for evaluating projects for awards of financial assistance, requiring the commissioner of
transportation to certify eligibility, and the commissioner of employment and economic development to evaluate the projects and certify those that will receive financial assistance, limiting financial assistance to a project to a maximum of 70 percent of project costs; requiring the commissioners, by February 1 of every odd-numbered year, to report to the legislative transportation and economic development committees on the program; requiring the commissioner of transportation, for major trunk highway projects, to select pavement material that has a design life of at least 20 years; authorizing the commissioner of transportation to spend specifically appropriated funds for stated non-infrastructure activities related to safe routes to school; allowing the commissioner of transportation to cancel remaining money in the grade crossing safety account to the trunk highway fund at the end of a biennium, rather than requiring this cancellation at the end of each fiscal year; increasing from one percent to five percent of the grants-in-aid appropriations to the youth intervention program that may be used by the Minnesota youth intervention programs association for added purposes of program development and professional development, as well as tracking, analyzing, and reporting outcome data for community-based grantees; establishing the position of emergency manager in the Capitol complex security division permanent staff and specifying certain duties; assigning the commissioner of public safety final authority over public safety and security in the Capitol complex, the commissioner of administration is responsible for the Capitol complex general management responsibilities;
removing a references to contracted Capitol Security services and requiring the commissioner of public safety to execute interagency agreements with agency tenants in the Capitol complex and to charge fees for providing security services; authorizing metropolitan area county regional rail authorities to utilize statutory powers to develop and pay the costs of building and operating bus rapid transit systems on transit ways that are part of the metropolitan council 2030 transportation policy plan; defining
project in the statute that limits regional railroad authorities contribution to the capital cost of a light rail transit or commuter rail project, project means initial construction of a minimum operable segment of a new line, but does not include enhancements and extensions constructed after the transit line is operational; requiring a peace officer to notify the commissioner of public safety if the officer makes a determination that probable cause exists to believe that a person has violated the DWI-related CVO law ; authorizing a person participating in the 2007 ignition interlock device pilot project to drive an employer-owned vehicle not equipped with an interlock device while in the normal course and scope of employment duties with employer written consent; allowing the metropolitan council, when it is the lead transportation authority in a transit way project, to contract with local community-based organizations to promote community engagement activities along the corridor; encouraging a lead transportation authority, in transit and transportation infrastructure projects, to make every effort to employ women, minority community members, to contract with women-owned and minority-owned targeted group businesses and to contract with a community-based employment assistance firm to recruit, hire, and retain women and minorities for the project construction workforce; stating that the Greater Minnesota transit component of the costs of Northstar commuter rail is exempt from the section of statute that limits financial assistance under the department of transportation (DOT) public transit participation program to eligible recipients outside of the metropolitan area; repealing provisions relating to the trunk highway economic development account, the expiration date of the Minnesota council on transportation access and the department of public safety rules relating to suspension and revocation of drivers licenses for CVO offenses

ARTICLE 4 - SEVERABILITY

Providing that if the section imposing a gross receipts tax on fuel distributors is found to be invalid, the sections that lower the gasoline and related fuel taxes and the section that adjusts the county state-aid highway fund excess fund language are without effect
(ra)