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Rep. Joyce Peppin Talks Transportation Plan, Budget Priorities

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- State lawmakers will have a lot of ground to cover when they return from Easter break.

Along with the first $40 billion budget in Minnesota history, a long term transportation plan is also getting a lot of attention. House Majority Leader Joyce Peppin joined the WCCO Sunday Morning show to talk about what's ahead at the Capitol.

There's agreement that there needs to be a long-term transportation plan, but there are big differences in how to pay for it. Gov. Mark Dayton and senate Democrats want to raise the gas tax, Republicans would like shift existing revenue. How would that work?

Peppin said the plan is to invest about $7 billion in transportation, especially roads and bridges, over the next 10 years. She said a stability fun would be created for transportation that would be funded with sales tax from rental vehicles, from leased vehicles and from auto parts.

"We'll continue to push forward with our plan. We think it makes a lot of sense. We think Minnesotans have been overtaxed," Peppin said. "We're dedicating existing taxes to go to roads and bridges like 33 other states do. We'll move through the process and hopefully come to some sort of agreement with the Democrat-led Senate and the governor."

With a $40 billion budget, there's been a lot of talk about tax cuts among Republicans. So what does that mean for the average Minnesotan?

Peppin said Gov. Dayton and Democrats have elected to spend the entire $43 billion budget on additional spending projects. The Republicans have a budget of about $39.9 billion on spending and the rest going to tax relief.

"We believe that hard-working Minnesotans have been overtaxed and they deserve to reap some of that benefit. So the tax committee will look at it and find ways to do just that," Peppin said.

Gov. Dayton is pushing to fund Pre-K programs as well as ways to help with college tuition. Peppin said the Republican budget invests more in education as well as higher education.

When the budget proposal came out on Tuesday, Democrats had strong words for it, calling it a "recipe for a shutdown." The question then becomes can the two parties find middle ground?

"We believe that our state government budget should not be growing faster than family budgets. Our budget grows government by 1.7 percent, and the governor's is closer to nine percent," Peppin said. "We believe it's our job to be fiscal stewards of our taxpayers and to have our budget put together more in line with what family budgets are."

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