Commentary: Pawlenty, MnDOT shift fiscal irresponsibility into overdrive

10/19/2007

Tony Sertich,
Bemidji Pioneer
Published Friday, October 19, 2007


For over a decade, our state’s crumbling highway infrastructure has been the center of heated debate at the Legislature and everyone agrees something needs to be done. Unfortunately for the past decade, we have not made meaningful gains or invested real resources in our most basic government functions — such as maintaining our roads and bridges. In many ways, there has been an appalling lack of leadership on the transportation issue.

It seems to be a daily occurrence that we read more news that Gov. Pawlenty’s Department of Transportation is falling apart and failing us.

One day it’s that they will run financial deficits, the next the roads haven’t met performance standards. Congestion continues to worsen, and the exterior panels on their central office will soon fall to the ground. This department is literally falling apart.

Bottom line, the state needs a better transportation system. We need to invest in economic development and personal safety. We need the Pawlenty administration to join the Legislature, who has led in a bipartisan way, for a comprehensive and aggressive transportation plan.

We need less spin and more action.

The collapse of the I-35W Bridge not only provided a tragic visual of the failure to act, but also turned the public’s attention to the life-and-death issue of investing in our state and our infrastructure. The bridge collapse was a human tragedy but the financial status of the Department of Transportation is a man-made disaster.

In 2003, Gov. Pawlenty and Lt. Gov. Molnau tried to convince us that roads are free and we can just borrow our way to a better transportation system, but four years later, the bill has come due.

Pawlenty’s follow-up act was to veto (not once, but twice) comprehensive and bipartisan transportation funding packages passed by the Legislature.

I’m proud to say I voted against Pawlenty’s ill-advised scheme at the time, but unfortunately for our state, the results were foreseen and predictable. As a result, the department is so desperate for cash they are floating creative finance schemes to try and make ends meet.

It is easy to conclude that MnDOT is flat broke and this administration is fiscally bankrupt. The simple facts are as follows:

- By its own admission, MnDOT is projected to run multimillion-dollar deficits during several months over the next couple of years.

- Project cost over-runs have become commonplace.

- Department interest payments (tax money not going to new projects or road maintenance) have skyrocketed from $5.6 million to $53.7 million in the past 10 years- an increase of 657 percent!

- Over the past five years, several projects have been canceled or delayed including Highway 100, the Crosstown project, the Devils Triangle, the Wakota Bridge, Highway 53 and Highway 19 through Marshall.

- Questionable accounting and unwise cash flow shifts need to be used if no other scheduled projects are to be delayed.

- MnDOT has requested the General Fund float them a loan to cash flow their needs.

- MnDOT’s own estimates say we need an additional $2.4 billion a year for the next 10 years simply to maintain current standards (not make progress on congestion or improve safety).

Sadly, we have shifted from a responsible “pay as you go” model to a “borrow and spend” system. It looks to me like Enron accounting, maxed out credit cards and budgeting by Band-Aids all at once. Frankly, Minnesota deserves better.

As if this financial mess isn’t bad enough for the taxpayers, the governor has launched into a full-tilt spin cycle. He claims that if the legislative committee doesn’t give MnDOT additional authority, other transportation projects will be delayed. The fact of the matter is that under Pawlenty, MnDOT has a long history of delaying projects long before the bridge collapse.

Viewing his response to legislators, it’s clear Gov. Pawlenty is using the awful bridge tragedy as an excuse to delay other projects. In truth, it is the governor’s vetoes and lack of leadership that have delayed these projects. If he honestly didn’t want projects delayed, he would sign one of these bipartisan funding bills and recognize his financial shortcomings.

Fortunately, the remedy for this mess appears to be an obvious two-step process. First, the governor needs to recognize his failed experiment of having Molnau act as lieutenant governor and commissioner of transportation at the same time. Molnau needs to do the right thing and step down, taking the upper MnDOT management with her when she goes. They need to be replaced with well-qualified individuals who have technical expertise, not political objectives.

Secondly, the Legislature needs to pass another comprehensive transportation funding package, and if the governor continues to ignore the magnitude of the crisis, override his veto. After all, a new commissioner of transportation won’t change Pawlenty’s failed policies, which are the real roadblock to road construction, traffic congestion reduction, safer highways and a financially stable department.

Minnesotans deserve a well-managed government that provides efficient core services — no matter where you live in the state. The Legislature has demonstrated that investment in our roads and bridges is not a partisan undertaking.

To make statewide progress, we need just a few more leaders to muster up the courage and do what’s right for communities, businesses and families.

Tony Sertich, DFL-Chisholm, is a member of the Minnesota House, where he serves as majority leader.