The following is a news release from Hennepin County:

The County Board approved resolutions today authorizing the county to join the Metropolitan Transportation Area, enter into a joint powers agreement establishing the Counties Transit Improvement Board, and adopt a 0.25 percent sales tax that will fund expansion of metropolitan transit options.
The vote was 5-2 with Commissioners Mike Opat, Mark Stenglein, Gail Dorfman, Peter McLaughlin and Linda Koblick voting in favor of the resolutions, and Commissioners Randy Johnson and Penny Steele voting against.

“Today we join Anoka, Dakota and Ramsey counties in committing resources to accomplish a shared vision of a transit system for our region that includes new light rail, commuter rail and bus rapid transit,” said McLaughlin, who also chairs the Hennepin County Regional Railroad Authority (HCRRA).

“This is the historic moment. We are establishing a dedicated funding source for the expansion of transitways throughout our region, including the Central, Southwest and Bottineau corridors.”

The board named McLaughlin and Opat members of the Counties Transit Improvement Board – which determines how the sales tax revenues are used –with Stenglein as an alternate and Dorfman as the Grant Evaluation and Ranking System Committee member.

McLaughlin offered an amendment indicating that if the State of Minnesota seeks to use any of the sales tax revenues for regular operations of Metro Transit, Hennepin intends to withdraw from the Counties Transit Improvement Board and repeal imposition of the 0.25-percent sales tax.

Opat offered an amendment for the HCRRA to decrease its proposed 2009 property tax levy by 61 percent, since the county’s share of operating costs for the Hiawatha and Northstar lines will now be funded by the sales tax revenues instead of county property taxes. A second amendment offered by Opat named the Bottineau, Central and Southwest corridors as “priority transit corridors” for Hennepin County.

Recently approved state legislation for various transportation initiatives gave the seven metro counties – Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott and Washington – the option of levying the sales tax for new rail lines and busways. Each of the counties had to decide whether to enter
into a new joint powers agreement with one another and levy the sales tax by April 1 if they want to start collecting the sales tax by July 1. Anoka, Dakota and Hennepin counties approved the tax, and Washington County is scheduled to vote on it Tuesday night.

The sales tax is estimated to generate approximately $100 million for transit in 2009, with more than half of that amount collected in Hennepin County. Having a dedicated funding source also means the Twin Cities can compete with Dallas, Denver, Portland and other comparable cities for federal matching funds to build rail and bus rapid transit, McLaughlin said.