Local officials, Transportation Alliance press lawmakers for bonding, local road and bridge funds

Representatives of the Minnesota Transportation Alliance, county engineers and county officials told the House Transportation Finance and Policy Committee on Feb. 11, 2025, that state bonding and program appropriations are needed to deliver a backlog of local road, bridge and wetland mitigation projects that are ready for construction.

Margaret Donahoe, executive director of the Minnesota Transportation Alliance, told members the alliance supports maintaining recent gains in transportation funding, passage of a major capital bonding bill that includes transportation investments, and measures to increase dedicated revenue for transportation. She listed options the alliance has proposed to increase revenue, including accelerating dedication of the sales tax on auto repair parts, removing the $100 order threshold on the retail delivery fee, increasing the annual electric vehicle fee and instituting a public-charging-station fee. Donahoe noted the state has used trunk-highway bonds and a mix of dedicated revenues to finance large projects and said additional trunk-highway bonding capacity would allow more Corridors of Commerce projects to proceed; she said the trunk-highway fund’s debt guideline provides capacity for additional bonding under current revenue projections.

Kristen Foster, Otter Tail County engineer speaking for the Association of Minnesota Counties and Minnesota County Engineers Association, urged funding for three local programs: the local bridge replacement program (LRRP), the Local Road Improvement Program (LRIP) and the Local Government Roads Wetland Replacement Program. Foster told the committee counties oversee roughly 44,534 miles of roads and about 80% of Minnesota bridges; she said the five-year LRRP list includes 948 bridges with an estimated replacement cost of more than $847 million and that funding in the program has been exhausted, leaving a pipeline of ready-to-build projects and closed bridges that need replacement. For LRIP, Foster said the 2023 solicitation produced 378 applications requesting approximately $417.1 million for nearly $922 million in needs; only 86 projects were funded in that round. On the wetland replacement program, Foster said five of the 10 bank service areas have less than one year of banked credits and recommended a one-time appropriation of $26 million and an estimated annual need of $9.5 million to sustain the program; she noted wetland restoration timelines and approvals typically take seven to 10 years.

Donahoe and county witnesses told the committee that federal discretionary grants awarded under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) often require state matching funds and that prior state match investments helped the state win federal awards; Donahoe asked the legislature to provide match funding so Minnesota can pursue additional federal discretionary grants.

Committee members asked questions about the fiscal implications of bills under consideration and how potential revenue changes would affect local projects. Witnesses said state bonding is the primary mechanism for delivering many local projects quickly because most local-bond-funded work is programmed and delivered within one to two years of appropriation. Foster and Donahoe emphasized that many projects are shovel ready and would be delivered quickly if state funds are provided.

The witnesses closed by urging lawmakers to include local roads and bridge programs in the capital bonding package and to provide predictable funding to sustain wetland replacement credits and other locally delivered programs.