Highway 14 Partnership becomes less adversarial

Group calls for

50-50 split of

highway funds with metro area

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

MANKATO -- A more mellow, less demanding Highway 14 Partnership, with New Ulm Mayor Joel Albrecht as its new chair, approved position statements calling for a 50-50 split with the metro area in state highway funds and advocating at least a 7-cent increase in the state gas tax during its 2004 annual meeting in Mankato Thursday.

However, Partnership members rejected several proposed positions that they felt smacked of being critical of either Minnesota Department of Transportation operations, legislative actions or both. For example, one proposal telling the Legislature it "should target funding to major projects like Trunk Highway 14" was deep-sixed.

Other proposals calling for prohibiting delays in highway projects, limiting the number of years any highway project could be advanced and requesting the Legislature to order the state legislative auditor to "conduct an independent analysis of the implementation" of the governor's and lieutenant governor's 2003 transportation funding law also were cut by the members.

"We need to maintain good relations with the legislators, with MnDOT and the folks in Washington to get this done. We need to be good to each other," the Partnership's former chair, Owatonna Mayor Pete Connor, told the group.

Sen. Keith Langseth, DFL-Glyndon, who filled in for the now-deposed Senate Majority Leader John Hottinger, wasn't nearly as charitable when it came to talking about MnDOT's commissioner, Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau.

Langseth, who chairs the Senate Capital Investment committee and serves on the Transportation Policy and Budget division, accused Molnau of breaking an agreement made with the Senate conference committee last year to get demand for the 50-50 split in last year's transportation bonding bill.

"We dropped that after she sent a letter saying that they (MnDOT) would live up to the intent (of that proposal), but it ended up being a 75/25 split in the 2003 transportation bill with rural only getting 25 percent. When the cost of the bonding was taken out, in rural Minnesota, we would have been better off with no bonding because we came out with a negative."

Langseth circulated a graph showing the apparent disparity, along with a copy of the letter that Molnau sent to Hottinger in late May 2003. In it, she refers to the Senate directing MnDOT "to allocate (these funds) to the maximum feasible extent. I want to personally assure you that this administration is committed to meeting the spirit and intent of this language."

During the legislators' discussion period, Rep. Connie Ruth, R-Owatonna, noted that Molnau "knows the problems we're having with Highway 14. She's a farmer, she's been on the Transportation Committee. She's on our side."

In discussing the $65 million from the 2003 transportation bill, which allowed MnDOT's District 7 to let a contract for expanding 10 miles of Highway 14 between Smith's Mill, west of Janesville, and the proposed Waseca by-pass, several members complained the impact of the accelerated construction of that segment set back other parts of the project by several years.

"I wouldn't complain about that if I were you," Senate Minority Leader Dick Day, R-Owatonna, said. "Here we've been limping along getting maybe $9 or $10 million a year, and we get you $65 million to complete a longer segment. Even if you didn't get another dime for another three or four years, you're still better off. I'd take that any day."

MnDOT District 6 Engineer Nelrae Succio had good news for the Partnership. She said the district had enough funds to start work on the Environmental Impact Statement update for Highway 14 between Owatonna and Dodge Center in 2005.

She also announced the Waseca by-pass and the Waseca to Owatonna segment are being combined into one project, and District 6 will have $5.5 million available to advance the design work for the four-lane expansion project "in fiscal 2005 and 2006."

District 7 will be letting contracts for the Smith's Mill-Waseca by-pass segment in February, Assistant District Engineer Greg Ous said.

"The funds from the 2003 transportation bill is letting the date be moved up six months. It's good to be able to let it as one project. When it's done, we'll have 10 miles of four-lane highway including the Janesville by-pass," Ous added.