Special Session Provides Aid to Disaster Victims, Communities
Legislators returned to St. Paul last evening to pass a bill primarily to aid flood disaster victims in southeast Minnesota. The House and Senate passed the legislation early this morning, more than seven hours after the special session started, and Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed it shortly before 3 a.m. You can read the final bill on the House website at www.house.mn.
At a total cost of more than $200 million, this relief package is the largest of its kind in Minnesota history, and the fastest government response ever for state aid to disaster victims. Past special sessions to provide flood relief came three or four months after the catastrophe occurred and much of the clean-up and rebuilding work was done. I’m happy to say that although it was crafted quickly to address the urgent need, it will work well in conjunction with both federal government aid and local government efforts. State dollars will be available for immediate needs, but that money must be paid back if and when federal disaster aid is available.
According to current estimates by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the flooding on August 18-19 damaged about 1,500 homes in the area and destroyed approximately 300. Hopefully, our fellow Minnesotans can return to normalcy soon with this assistance.
The bill provides a mix of cash assistance and state-borrowed funds for public safety, transportation, housing and other needs in the area, totaling about $157.3 million. Eleven state agencies will receive funding in the flooding portion of the bill for their part in repairing highways and bridges, wastewater treatment facilities, and contaminated wells, removing trash and debris, providing provisional housing and property tax relief, and helping schools impacted by temporarily losing or gaining students. The funds will ultimately go to counties, local governments, businesses, farms and individuals in the form of direct assistance, grants and loans. Funds relating to economic development will help businesses adversely affected by the flood so residents in the area continue to have employment. The aid also helps continue health services providers’ payments and helps local governments to bridge their lost and delayed property tax income, allowing them to continue providing services. The funding package also covers much of local governments’ share of the breakdown of cost responsibility where FEMA’s covers about 75 percent in this type of disaster.
In addition to the flood disaster relief, the bill includes authorization to spend approximately $53.2 million advanced by the federal government for recovery and cleanup costs associated with the I-35W bridge collapse in early August and $2 million for Minneapolis bridge disaster matching funds. An additional $5.3 million is included in the bill to assist in funding other recent disasters, such as the Cook County forest fires, flooding in Browns Valley and Crookston, and drought relief for farmers across the state who have seen severe losses this summer.
Critics of the bill question why it did not include any new transportation funding, statewide construction projects or state aid increases for local governments. These are vital issues that continue to be controversial and require the time and attention available when we return to regular session in February. In the interest of dealing with the impact of the floods, we decided to move ahead now to promote the quickest possible return to normalcy for residents in the impacted communities and not force these individuals and families to wait for agreement on other funding issues. In the meantime, federal aid is beginning to roll in for the Minneapolis bridge rebuilding, and interim committees are studying what further needs we will have regarding a comprehensive transportation funding package.
I have been disappointed that we have been unable to sign into law a transportation funding bill during the last three years. Clearly, I do not want to increase taxes (gas tax, tab fees, sales tax, and wheelage tax) as much as proposed by some transportation advocates, but I do believe we have a need for more funding in that area. Perhaps some money can be found within the existing state budget, but I don't believe we can take it from the two largest areas funded by state government, education and health care, unless we put more of the burden for those services on local governments and property taxpayers, which I don't want to do. In addition, MnDOT Commissioner/Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau has already worked hard to squeeze as many efficiencies out of MnDOT as possible to help pay for highway project bonds which were let several years ago. I don't believe we can take any more out of that budget for new projects because we need it to pay for maintenance of our existing roads and bridges.
I agree with Gov. Pawlenty that we should look at bonding for some major projects needed now that would otherwise wait 5-15 years before construction. He proposes to pay off the bonds with the Motor Vehicle Sales Tax (MVST) which was constitutionally dedicated last fall by voters for transportation. Opponents of this plan believe that the MVST money will not be adequate to pay off the bonds in 6-10 years when payments are at their peak. In response, I and several other legislators have proposed a gas tax of up to 2.5 cents which would "blink on" if and when there was a shortage of funds to pay off the bonds. This proposal, made at the end of last session, was obviously not adopted, but I am hopeful that it will be considered next year. In addition, we should be looking at an array of funding possibilities, including alternative ways to pay for new projects, such as congestion price indexing and possibly even tolls for new bridges. Although not my favorite method of financing, with new technology, many drivers don't even have to stop to pay tolls anymore because they can use prepurchased accounts. Please let me know if you are aware of any additional innovative and practical ways to fund future transportation projects.
This week’s special session, even with all of its name-calling and partisan bickering before the actual event, shows that we can come together in service to Minnesotans. The political process has natural conflict built into it -- people have deep and sincerely held differences of opinion -- and that isn't bad unless it continues to prevent solutions to problems. I look forward to next session and the opportunity to continue our work to improve the lives of our state's residents.
Claire Robling
State Senator
District 35
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