Legislative Session number- 88

Bill Name: SF1173

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)