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By Kari VanDerVeen
Southwest legislators calling for changes to MnDOT, investment in transportation
Sen. Scott Dibble (DFL-60) and Rep. Frank Hornstein (DFL-60B) first met almost two decades ago during a neighborhood campaign to stop the expansion of I-35W.
The buttons Dibble handed out then as a community activist — stamped with the phrase "Trains, Not Lanes" — still accurately describe the vision the two Southwest legislators have for the state's transportation system.
Now in a position to influence transportation policy at the Legislature, Dibble and Hornstein are working hard to do so. Dibble, a member of the Senate Transportation Committee and chair of the Transit Subcommittee, and Hornstein, chair of the House Transportation and Transit Policy Subcommittee, are calling for renewed investment in transportation and changes in how the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) is run.
They were among the first legislators to call for the resignation of MnDOT Commissioner Carol Molnau, who also serves as lieutenant governor. They are members of a legislative committee investigating the structural problems within MnDOT's organization. And they're working to put together a transportation bill for the upcoming legislative session that will provide more funding for the state's roads and bridges.
"We have a Southwest team that's really at the center of all of this," Hornstein said, noting that House Speaker and Southwest legislator Margaret Anderson Kelliher (DFL-60A) has also called for Molnau's resignation.
Dibble said the conversation around transportation has been changing in recent years as more Minnesotans have realized the need to invest in infrastructure and transit, but the I-35W bridge collapse solidified transportation as a top issue for the upcoming legislative session. The Legislature will likely look at a bill similar to the one it passed last session, which would have boosted transportation funding through an increase to the gas tax and other fees, Hornstein said. Gov. Tim Pawlenty vetoed that bill, and the Legislature only managed to pass a funding bill keeping the state's transportation system at status quo.
With the bridge collapse serving as an acute example of a failure in the transportation system, Hornstein and Dibble are optimistic about getting a transportation bill passed that would channel more resources to roads, bridges and transit.
"We're standing, really, at the cusp of significant advancements of transportation finance and policy," Dibble said.
Southwest residents could directly see the results of increased transportation funding in the way of improvements to I-35W, progress with the Southwest Corridor and the possibility of streetcars along Lake Street or the Midtown Greenway.
In addition to preparing legislation, Dibble and Hornstein are also adamant that changes need to be made to MnDOT's organizational structure. Recent legislative hearings have revealed that the agency is "literally broke," Hornstein said.
"It's a combination of underfunding and mismanagement and, even prior to the bridge collapse, this was happening," Hornstein said, noting that MnDOT had to cut funding from other projects to provide enough money for the Crosstown
reconstruction.
Dibble and Hornstein said the first step to be taken to repair the agency is to replace Molnau. The Senate is responsible for confirming Molnau, a process that is normally done at the beginning of each term. But the Senate did not take that action at the beginning of Molnau's current term, and Dibble said the matter will now likely go to the floor of the Senate — where he said there is "without a doubt" the votes needed to ouster her.
"She has grossly mismanaged the agency," Dibble said.
He and Hornstein said having the commissioner of MnDOT — a leader who should be advocating for the needs of the agency — also advocating for the policies of the governor creates a conflict of interest.
"Clearly this experiment in having a lieutenant governor serve as the commissioner of a very complex state organization has failed," Hornstein said.
Hornstein and Dibble would like to see someone in the commissioner role who has engineering expertise and strong management skills. The legislators are serving on a 10-member legislative committee examining MnDOT's organizational structure and looking at what can be improved. The committee's goal is to help restore public trust in the agency.
"We're not going to have another transportation agency. They're the only game in town," Dibble said. "So we need to figure out what's happening in the culture of decision-making at MnDOT and diagnose that so that, hopefully, it can be remedied in terms of the leadership piece."
Reach Kari VanDerVeen at kvanderveen@mnpubs.com or 436-4373.
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