ST. CLOUD - St. Cloud State Senator John Pederson says keeping the flights going between St. Cloud and Chicago is one of his top priorities this legislative session. He says Mayor Dave Kleis has asked the state for a $2 million loan...

But, with the flights scheduled to be grounded at the end of February, Pederson knows they're working with a tight timeline...

Governor Mark Dayton has said he would be in favor of financially helping the struggling flights. The twice-daily SkyWest flights between st. Cloud and O'Hare airport began last May. Skywest announced on Christmas Eve that they would be suspending the flights in April, then last week they moved-up the suspension to early March.

Transportation Funding:
There's been a lot of talk about transportation funding in this first week of the State Legislative session. Pederson of St. Cloud says we should be using existing revenue to increase transportation funding. He says Minnesota is one of only three states that has a statewide business property tax. He plans to introduce a bill that would designate that money specifically for transportation projects...

Governor Mark Dayton has hinted he'll propose an additional 6.5 percent sales tax on fuel purchases.

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