One of the bills that has popped up at the State Legislature this week is a bill that would force cities that have their own transit systems to levy local property taxes to support their transit operations. Up until two years ago, cities did levy property for their transit operations. Then the state decided to step in and take over that responsibility.
Eden Prairie, Chanhassen, and Chaska participate jointly in Southwest Metro Transit. It is widely recognized in this state as being perhaps the best transit system in the state. We have great new buses, a great new parking ramp, and an exciting new hub and commercial development that will be the best transit development in the metro area. Slinking back into locally-levied property taxes would not kill SW Metro’s operations, but it wouldn’t be the best thing to happen either.
The bill was introduced this week in the House by Rep. Dorman and in the Senate by Sen. Langseth. They are elected representatives from Greater Minnesota. Most small towns in Greater Minnesota do not have transit operations so they don’t have any transit taxes to reimpose. They see the state takeover of the transit tax as a subsidy to the suburbs. Many people feel this bill is aimed squarely at the suburbs. It looks like the first shot across the bow of a suburban-rural show-down in the legislature for this year. Not a good thing.
