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By Phil Krinkie
When the state legislature wrapped-up a special session in one day last month, Minnesotans thought that they would get a break from politics for a few months until state lawmakers are scheduled to reconvene in February. But it seems some legislators just can’t pull themselves away. They persist to debate transportation funding with a “he said, she said don’t blame me, it was MnDOT’s fault” attitude. All of these discussions seem to end with a standard DFL solution, a call for Lt. Governor Molnau to resign as Commissioner of MnDOT, a position she has held for the past 4½ years.
Some of the loudest voices calling for her resignation are State Senator Steve Murphy, chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, and Speaker of the House Margaret Kelliher.
While they are certainly entitled to their opinion, after serving in the Legislature for 16 years, I would take a very different tack. What seems to be lost to these legislators, and the public at large, is that MnDOT is a huge bureaucracy, and given its current structure, it is doubtful that anyone can manage that Department effectively. A change at the helm will not fundamentally change MnDOT’s operations. Real change will only come through a great deal of legislative leadership and the courage to change the status quo.
If Lt. Governor Molnau resigned as Commissioner of Transportation tomorrow, little or nothing would change. MnDOTs leviathan-like bureaucracy would continue swallowing taxpayer money with little or no relief from the regulatory nightmares and overspending that has marked its existence for years.
While no government agency is a model of efficiency, there are four reasons why trying to manage MnDOT is like trying to break up the concrete that was poured fifty years ago. The essence of the problem is that MnDOT is an agency managed by constitutional amendment.
It started in 1920 with a Constitutional amendment to establish the state trunk highway system. This was a master plan to establish and maintain a network of transportation arteries across the state to effectively move goods and services throughout the state. Eighty years have past and we aren’t driving daddy’s Oldsmobile, let alone grandpa’s hay wagon. The fact that there is still a section of state designated trunk highway that is a gravel road would seem to indicate its time for a major overhaul of the plan.
Once you have a master plan for a state highway system, you need a method to fund it, so in 1924 there was a Constitutional amendment passed to dedicate the excise tax on motor fuel (gas tax) to the trunk highway fund.
The passage of these two amendments provide for a network of state highways and a funding source to build and maintain the system. What a great way to construct a Transportation network, but why was it done under a constitutional mandate?
As the years passed, cities and counties wanted more state money for roads and bridges, so in 1954 another constitutional amendment was forwarded to guarantee cities and counties would receive a share of the state gas tax revenue with a defined split of 62% for the state, 29% for the counties and 9% for the cites.
Lastly, after a 20 year tug of war in the Legislature over whether the sales tax on vehicles should be spent on roads verses general state needs, yet another constitutional amendment was passed in 2006 to spend at least 40% of the sales tax on vehicles for transit and not more than 60% on roads.
The result of eighty years of legislative bickering and constitutional amendments has left MnDOT governed by popular vote from decades gone by, instead of current needs. The rigid mandates of the constitution leave little room for innovation and no flexibility to manage a 21st century transportation system.
So legislators can pound their fist on the table and scream for the Lt. Governor’s resignation from MnDOT, but until there is an extreme make over of the funding process for transportation little or nothing will change. Even with a new Commissioner at the Department, the lack of legislative control of the Department’s purse means Minnesotans will see little improvement in our transportation system for the millions of dollars we expend each year.
Phil Krinkie is President of the Taxpayers League of Minnesota
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