TRANSPORTATION FINANCE BILL SHRINKS

The provision in the 2008 Transportation Finance Bill that would have increased the gas tax every year for the next ten years has been removed. The House Tax Committee approved the bill after the provision indexing the gas tax increase to the comsumer price index was removed. The bill still includes a 5-cent per gallon increase and now a gas tax surcharge of 3.5-cents per gallon to repay $1.8-Billion worth of constuction bonds. The estimated cost of the $8.4-Billion dollar bill has now been revised down to $7.8-Billion over ten years. The House version is to be in the Ways and Means Committee Tuesday. The Transportation Bill could be debated in both the full House and Senate on Thursday. Governor Pawlenty said legislators believe he is irrelevant to the discussion and they want to pass a bill that will override his veto.