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Transit advocates, unions and climate groups urge conference committee to protect transit funding and VMT law; unions oppose Northstar shutdown
Summary
Transit and climate advocates pushed the committee to preserve transit and active-transportation funding and to uphold the state's vehicle-miles-traveled (VMT) greenhouse-gas law, while transit unions warned that ending Northstar commuter rail would cost jobs and require federal repayment.
Joe Harrington, policy manager at Our Streets, told the committee the house version of the omnibus bill would undercut Minnesota's VMT greenhouse-gas law and reduce active-transportation and transit funding. "Transportation is our largest source of emissions," Harrington said, urging support for the Senate provisions that permit MnDOT to consider transit, biking and pedestrian investments within trunk highway right-of-way.
Why it matters: Witnesses argued that delaying or weakening the VMT-related requirements and cutting transit funding will increase pollution, worsen traffic safety and reverse progress toward more equitable multimodal transportation systems.
Move Minnesota's executive director, MJ Carpio, warned of cuts to Metro Transit and Greater Minnesota transit proposed in both bills and urged the committee to restore or protect funding. Sarah Wolf of Minnesota Interfaith Power & Light described deep cuts in the House bill — $12 million per biennium to Greater Minnesota transit and large cuts to Metro Transit — and framed the cuts in equity terms, saying transit investments serve a wide range of households and communities.
Several witnesses highlighted specific projects. Glenn Johnson of the Met Council's Transportation Advisory Board urged the committee not to spend $9 million of TAB active-transportation sales tax funds on the Washington Avenue Bridge because that allocation would be 40% of TAB's annual revenue and would limit competitive grants for other projects. Others argued the senate language clarifying "highway purposes" to include multimodal projects would allow MnDOT to build Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and other options more efficiently.
Union testimony focused on Northstar commuter rail: David Stiggers, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005, and Dave Butts, vice president of the Amalgamated Transit Union, said terminating Northstar would force repayment of federal funds (up to $100 million was cited), cost good-paying rail maintenance jobs, and harm communities that built housing and business plans around the service. Stiggers said ridership could grow with marketing and service improvements.
Committee response and next steps: Committee chairs acknowledged the competing fiscal pressures and said they would continue to evaluate both House and Senate language. Members asked staff to provide clearer fiscal comparisons and to identify policy items that could be advanced without immediate budget targets.
Ending: The day’s testimony showed strong, cross-cutting support for maintaining or increasing investment in transit and active transportation and for allowing MnDOT flexibility to implement emissions-reduction goals; unions and riders emphasized the economic and service costs of ending commuter-rail service.
