| For Immediate Release | For More Information Contact: |
| January 11, 2002 | Dan Wolter (651) 296-0640 |
St. Paul, Minnesota Republican leaders of the Minnesota House of Representatives called on Governor Jesse Ventura to lead by example in balancing the state budget by halting a controversial $600,000 contract the Minnesota Department of Transportation has with a Washington, DC-based consulting firm to lobby the state and federal governments for more money for a commuter rail project. The contract was first exposed in a Thursday Minneapolis Star-Tribune article.
"At a time when the Governor is telling Minnesotans they need to pay $1.4 billion in higher taxes, his agencies are wasting money like this?" said Speaker of the House Steve Sviggum (R-Kenyon). "I would guess if most taxpayers knew MnDOT was spending $600,000 of their tax dollars to lobby the Legislature and Congress for more money for commuter rail, one of his pet projects, they would be outraged. This might not seem like much money, but it could be used to lessen the deficit or improve Minnesota's roads."
In his budget balancing plan released on Thursday, Ventura proposed a five-cent per gallon hike in the gas tax and indexing the gas tax for inflation, which means an automatic gas tax increase every year. Through an accounting shift, the Governor uses the money to pay for the license tab fee reduction enacted two years ago and not for road and bridge projects.
"The Governor keeps talking about taking immediate action and shared pain," said House Majority Leader Tim Pawlenty (R-Eagan). "I think one of the quickest and easiest cuts he could make is to stop this ludicrous example of government lobbying itself and to make MnDOT's DC lobbyists feel some of the pain."
In the 2001 legislative session, the Legislature passed a provision preventing MnDOT from spending funds to study commuter rail without specific legislative approval. The law had already prevented the agency from appropriating funds for commuter rail construction and equipment without specific legislative approval.
"Clearly, taking this significant amount of taxpayer dollars is contrary to lawmakers' intent," said Sviggum. "If the Governor wants to make this 'Light Rail Part II', he is off to a bad start."
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