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• • Page 5 scheduled to expire at the end of fiscal 1989). Driver license fee revenue should properly be used to finance the driver licensing system and ought not to be used permanently as a revenue - raising device. Repeal of this dedication will require about S43 million in MVET funds for fiscal 1989. 2. The new MVET money should also be used to provide the additional funds needed to maintain the Metro Mobility program through the rest of the biennium at its present level of service. The increased demand for this service will force it to run out of money before the end of the biennium unless its appropriation is supplemented or service cut back. The amount which the Regional Transit Board is presently requesting for the Metro Mobility supplement is S7.2 million. These two objectives will require about $115 million in fiscal 1989. The Commission hopes that the legislature will find it possible to use the remainder of the additional MVET revenues going to the Transit Assistance Fund as supplemental rather than replacement funds, so that the state can make a meaningful renewal of its commitment to transit as a vital public service. While the Commission believes that this program will mark and end to a policy of retreat in the face of transportation problems and a start toward a permanent solution, it is by no means a complete plan. There is a need for a long -range plan to define Minnesota's real transportation needs and to formulate methods of meeting those needs, including long -term sources of financing. Our final recommendation eall5 for a process for developing such a plan. Recommendation No. 3. The legislature should create a Transportation Study Board to prepare a long - ranee study of transportation needs and funding, Such a board ought to consist of both legislators and a broad cross- section of the public, including representatives of business, labor, manufacturing, agriculture, tourism and other major highway users. It should be given sufficient time, staff and resources to make a thorough study of transportation needs both today and over the next twenty year and to develop a plan to meet those needs. Such a plan will necessarily be a compromise between the desires of all highway users and the ability of the state to make those desires a reality, but it is hoped that the board's studies will be aimed primarily at achieving a transportation system which will be a positive force for encouraging economic development and expanding public mobility. Specifically, we recommend that as part of its studies the board should consider. 1. The possible use of tolls for fmancing major highway improvements. 2. The costs and benefits of further borrowing to finance highway and bridge improvements. 3. The role of town roads in the state's overall road system and the appropriate level of state highway user tax revenue which should go for town roads and bridges. 4. The possible restoration of the Minnesota Department of Transportation's exemption from the state sales tax, and the exemption from the Motor Vehicle Excise Tax previously enjoyed by both Mn /DOT and local units of government. 5. The use of wheelage taxes as a measure for financing local road and street improvements. 6. The desirability of amending the Minnesota Constitution to provide permanent dedication to transportation purposes of some portion of MVET revenues. 7. The abandonment of the present per -gallon basis for the gasoline tax and its replacement by a