In the House
On Monday, March 9th, Chair Brad Tabke (DFL, 54A) held the gavel in the House Transportation Committee.
The committee took up several smaller technical issues and changes to the functions of Driver and Vehicle Services (DVS), including digital licenses and modifications to the use of tab stickers to indicate vehicle registration on license plates.
At the end of the hearing, HF 3728, Minnesota’s and the country’s most potentially transformative fix-it-first bill, was heard in the committee.
Representative Erin Koegel (DFL, 39A) introduced the bill in collaboration with Our Streets, which would transition us toward fixing our existing road system before expanding it, preserve fiscal responsibility and stewardship of public funds, and prioritize long-term planning to make our transportation dollars go further to serve Minnesotans across the state.
This bill puts safety first, saves money for Minnesota families who drive on poorly maintained roads, and saves our state billions of dollars in taxpayer money.
Additionally, it supports workers. Long-term maintenance planning moves us toward projects that address roadways down to the foundation—more complex, more consistent work that supports those good jobs.
We are thrilled that the bill was laid over at the committee and look forward to broader conversations soon.
Suburban Transit “Opt-Outs”
On Wednesday, March 11th, Chair John Koznick (GOP, 57A) held the gavel in the House Transportation Committee. Among other smaller changes and bills, the conversation centered around Transit service consolidation in the Twin Cities metropolitan area.
This GOP initiative would roll “opt-out” providers, including Minnesota Valley Transit Authority (MVTA), Southwest Transit, Plymouth Metrolink, and Maple Grove Transit, into a unified transit system operated by Metro Transit.
Many, including transit riders, testified to the need for suburban transit and to its importance for connecting those who don’t drive to their daily needs.
Supporters made the case for consolidating these providers under one unified agency to plan, fund, and deliver transit, which will improve service in areas currently served by the opt-outs and across the region, while reducing administrative costs from duplicative overhead.
This bill was advanced by bipartisan votes to the Ways and Means Committee for further discussion.
In the Senate
On Monday, March 9th, the Senate heard several bills: to dedicate Highway 610 as the Hortman Memorial Highway; the “super speeders bill” on enforcement for repeat speeding offenders; and a bill to allow trunk highway dollars to be spent to support local governments in relocating utilities during road construction.
Interestingly, the case for spending to relocate utilities is based on the same case law that supports a broader interpretation of highway purposes to include transit and active transportation as well.
A 1958 case challenged the rigidity of the highway purpose definition, establishing that HUTDF funds could be used for purposes other than roadway infrastructure itself. The case, Minneapolis Gas Co. v. Zimmermann, 91 N.W.2d 642 (Minn. 1958), sought to determine whether these highway funds could be used to reimburse utilities for the cost of relocating their facilities due to highway construction.
The court adopted a ‘broad, not strict’ approach to the amendment, stating that:
“…in the absence of restrictive or qualifying language, these constitutional provisions are not to be construed as expressing an intent to limit the expenditure of funds thereunder to only one, or less than all of the purposes for which highways exist in our society today. The concept of the functional uses or purposes of a highway has constantly expanded with the advancement of civilization until today as a highway no longer exists for the limited, through principle, purpose of vehicular travel of transportation of persons and property over its surface.”
This ruling emphasizes that the purposes of a highway can be independent of travel and are more broadly consistent with the public welfare objective “to make full and efficient use of the land surface occupied by public roads.” The case further established that HUTDF funds can be expended “for whatever is reasonable necessary to complete accomplishment of all the basic purposes for which a highway exists.”
This broad interpretation supports our work to clarify the purposes of highways to include transit and active transportation projects along state highways.
This is a common-sense clarification that aligns our state’s funding practices with how Minnesotans actually use our trunk highways today, building safer streets for all, connecting communities with opportunities, and saving the state money by aligning projects to be delivered at the same time. Fundamentally, this clarification respects the original intent of the State Constitution to provide a transportation system for all Minnesotans, regardless of how people choose to travel.
We look forward to this bill setting the stage for further highway purposes conversation in 2027.
On Wednesday, March 11th, the Senate heard the report from the electricity as a vehicle fuel working group, and laid the discussion on the table.
Our Streets Day on the Hill
We hosted our Day on the Hill on Thursday, March 12. We met as a group with Transportation Committee Chair Senator Scott Dibble, Representative Erin Koegel, and Representative Samantha Sencer-Mura. Attendees also met with their own representatives as time and schedules allowed. It was a great day of sharing concerns regarding issues like Waymo and the Rethinking I-94 Project, as well as our support of Fix-it-First and other legislative priorities with elected officials.
Stay updated on legislative progress
We’ll let you know about action alerts, opportunities to testify, and other transportation-related legislative happenings.