At times, the partisan rhetoric that accompanies a legislative issue is so distorted that it actually undermines our practice of representative government. When we lose trust in the representatives that we send to St. Paul on our behalf, we lose faith in the process, itself.

Clearly, that is what is happening in the aftermath of the House decision to pass a transportation funding bill over Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s veto. Opponents of the bill have chosen to base their criticisms on distortions, half statements and false claims rather than facts.

They would have you believe that the omnibus transportation finance bill contains a tax increase that is the largest “in modern Minnesota history,” and that it puts too much money into metro transit at the expense of greater Minnesota roads and bridges. The truth is well short of their claims.

There have been much larger tax increases and investments that provided real benefits for our state. Anyone remember the “Minnesota Miracle?” Our state has been a national leader in providing a well-educated work force because we invest in our children. Now it’s time to invest our transportation infrastructure.

The gas tax will go up 5 cents a gallon this year and another 3½ cents a gallon over the next four years to refurbish a transportation system that clearly has seen better days. The added tax will cost drivers less than $2 per week or the equivalent of a cup of coffee and a doughnut once a week — definitely not the largest tax increase in state history.

Just take a look at recent property tax increases. This year is the first time in 20 years that the legislators — Republicans and Democrats, rural and urban lawmakers — have been able to agree on a plan to produce more long-term revenue to finance improvements to our transportation system.

The transportation finance bill is vital to our economic future; we can’t build a strong economy on a weak transportation infrastructure. We must not forget that Minnesota had a bridge collapse at the height of rush hour last year. We have 13 fracture-critical bridges on the state system still in use in Minnesota and counties have many more deficient bridges. Repairing state bridges, alone, will cost the state $600 million.

We have traffic gridlock in the Twin Cities, and uncompleted highway projects in greater Minnesota. Reconstruction of U.S. Highway 14, between Rochester and New Ulm started 40 years ago. The project still is so far from completion that some of its segments have not been assigned completion dates.

When the legislative session convened, our transportation needs exceeded the money we had available to pay for them. The 20-cents-a-gallon gas tax that had been in place for 20 years had eroded to a point where it had the purchasing power of only 11 cents a gallon.

Clearly, the tax was not capable of generating enough revenue to adequately address the $38.1 billion in transportation needs that will come due by 2030. Before passage of the omnibus transportation finance bill, the state had only $14.5 billion available to address those needs. Simple math demonstrated that we were falling behind.

The omnibus transportation finance bill increased the gas tax, which can be used only for roads and bridges, and made a quarter percent sales tax in the Twin Cities available to fund its mass transit program. This revenue will be distributed to all 87 counties and all major cities along with increasing state highway funding throughout Minnesota.

“Anyone who claims that rural Minnesota is not getting its fair share of funding (from the bill) is not accurate,” said Anita Benson, highway engineer for Lyon County.

What the Lyon County highway engineer offers is a truth that the House minority leader and a few of his followers at the Legislature cannot bring themselves to accept.