AUSTIN &045; State senators listened to concerns about road and bridge funding, the gas tax, public transportation and traffic safety during a Senate Finance Committee Transportation Policy and Budget Division meeting Tuesday.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty recently announced a $1 billion transportation financing package that aims to accelerate highway and bridge construction projects by as much as nine years. Critics say the amount is too small to meet projected demands.

Trying to convince the committee, highway engineers of southeastern Minnesota county governments explained the importance of continuous funding for their road projects.

&uot;Over 70 percent of our roads are rated as a seven-ton road,&uot; Freeborn County Highway Engineer Sue Miller said. Sometimes, 10-ton class trucks needed for transporting crops have no choice but use them, she said.

Glen Baker of McFarland Truck Lines of Austin opposed any gas-tax increase, which the DFL has been considering to include the Senate budget proposal to counter the governor’s no-tax-increase plan.

Collette Turcotte, executive director of South Central Community Action Partnership, said that a cut in

public transportation would affect low-income and marginally employed families.

Her organization, which has changed its name from Community Action of Freeborn County, runs Mower County Transit, a public transportation system with nine bus route in Austin and a county-wide dial-a-ride service.

State budget woes have already taken away $70,000 in operating dollars from the organization for the current fiscal year ending in June. The governor’s proposal for the next biennium also calls for an annual $36,000 cut.