Minn. Transit Officials Scrambling To Find Funds For Southwest LRT
ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) -- Minnesota officials are scrambling Thursday afternoon to line up the final pieces of funding for a proposed light-rail line.
Minnesota's top transit official says the state will begin shutting down the Southwest Light Rail project starting next week, including layoff notices to 45 project workers, because the state hasn't come up with funding to continue.
That's why Governor Dayton convened an emergency meeting in St. Paul today -- to try to figure out how to save the $2 billion dollar project, or shut it down.
There is still a very clear, sharp divide between parties in the legislature. Some call the light rail the future of Twin Cities transit. Oppoents say its the most wasteful public works project in state history.
"We are one state, we are one Minnesota, and we should start acting like that, instead of pitting rural districts and rural communities against the Metro and the Metro against the rural communities," Sen. Ron Latz (DFL-St. Louis Park) said.
Rep. Linda Runbeck (R-Lino Lakes) said the project's trajectory is concerning.
"We have big, big questions. We don't understand the urgency," she said. "Is there really, all of the sudden in the last week, a cash management problem? I mean, my gosh, whose problem is that?"
Hennepin County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin says the project is critical to the infrastructure of the future in Minnesota.
"We built out a freeway system a couple of generations ago, and these things get built in chunks, piece by piece. It's not one system all at once," he said. "This is the chunk -- Southwest -- that's in front of us today, and we need to get it financed and we need to get it built."
Rep. Tony Albright (R-Prior Lake) says the project is simply being mismanaged.
"I can't agree with the process that's been undertaken, and I think we are witnessing an end run on the legislative process," he said.
The 14.5-mile Southwest Light Rail line runs from Minneapolis south through the western suburbs. Local officials are trying to cobble together enough money to keep the project on track until next year.
State transportation officials are feeling the urgency -- if Minnesota doesn't come up with its $135 million share, it's very possible it will lose $940 in federal funds to another city.