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June 2005
Opening session panel
Jay Cowles
Rick Krueger
See "Building consensus: Lessons from Denver and the outlook for Minnesota" for background information on the article below.
After Bill Elfenbein's presentation, the session turned to comments from Rep. Mary Liz Holberg. Building consensus is a continual process, she began, and this legislative session has gone further than before. However, the result is still in question. The "real stage" will be the House floor, where many amendments are expected. "My crystal ball…is pretty muddy," she said.
The majority of legislators support increasing transportation funding this biennium rather than waiting for a referendum on the 2006 ballot, she reported. Another major challenge is Metro Transit's budget shortfall.
Regarding the regional outlook, Holberg said, "we have a little bit of education and work to do." Many metro legislators are hesitant to put the burden on just the metropolitan area, "given the belief that we are a whole state, and that as different regions of our state have needed help—whether it be the farming community, the mining community, and so on—we've been there for state dollars."
In the question-and-answer session that followed, one audience member asked if it is possible to form a nonpartisan transportation coalition. "There is no way to get partisanship out of the legislature," Holberg answered; a more likely scenario would be some type of regional leadership, perhaps through the Metropolitan Council. Even with legislative gridlock, however, she sees "some light at the end of the horizon," citing the passage of Northstar commuter rail funding. "The region will be forced to come to grips with [transit funding]," she predicted, "or we will not have the money to support the systems already committed to."
Jay Cowles described the work of the Itasca Project, a group formed about 18 months ago that brings together the leadership of the area's large corporations to address civic issues in the Twin Cities metro area. The group includes 40 corporate CEOs, mayors, University of Minnesota president Robert Bruininks, and other leaders.
Cowles, co-chair of the Itasca transportation initiative and the managing director of a private investment company, said transportation arose naturally to become one of six issues studied by the group. Projecting five to ten years out, the CEOs saw a transportation funding scenario that was "entirely inadequate" for the future. Without investment in the transportation system, they foresaw expanding their facilities out of state or moving them entirely. "We have a big problem, and the business leadership recognized it," he said.
Itasca made two observations: First, there is a broad consensus around the nature and scope of the system that needs to be built; second, what appears to be most notably missing is the political will to build it, in part due to the public's lack of engagement.
Thus, Itasca decided to form a campaign—Go Minnesota—to educate citizens about the urgent need for investment. The campaign has grown to involve 326 organizations statewide, including cities, counties, the construction industry, and other businesses. Billboards, radio ads, and a Web site—gominnesota.org—are all part of the campaign.
Itasca also proposed a comprehensive plan to the legislature that emphasizes a long-term perspective for a statewide system, as well as maximum innovation and efficiency in current operations. Benchmarking and biannual reports are also included.
The second leg of their plan calls for new investment of $750 million annually over 15 years, at least $150 million of which would be dedicated to transit. It ties 80 percent of the new money to specific projects that are identified upfront and based on system performance and economic development. In addition, the plan favors variable pricing approaches such as MnPass to ensure existing capacity is used to the fullest.
At the legislature, he said, Itasca's message is this: "We're here to support whoever wants to get something done this session." Still, he concluded, "Itasca is not going to go away on this issue," and will take a long-term perspective.
In light of the legislative stalemate, Rick Krueger declared, "we're always teetering between catastrophe and disaster." Consensus is elusive in part because the investment required for the next 20 years has grown so massive. "It's not a matter of redistribution," he said. "That's like telling starving victims they need to go on a diet."
He divided the "process blockers" into three categories: "purists" in both parties—such as transit advocates or anti-tax groups—who won't concede anything; "apologists" who say "I'd like to support this, but…," even though no Minnesota legislator has ever been defeated based on a vote for a gas-tax increase; and "pretenders" on both sides of the aisle who "toss out totally unworkable solutions…and ignore problems."
Three things can change the dynamics, Krueger said, and move us from gridlock to consensus: public engagement, political self-interest, and "an epiphany that people will realize that the interests of the state are more important than anything else, that they reach across the aisle…and do what's right for the economic future of the state."
In the question-and-answer time that followed, Cowles said he sees cause for optimism. Transportation was the galvanizing force in the recent development of a regional council of mayors and a two-year coalition of the chambers of commerce in the Twin Cities region. On the downside, the area is still fragmented politically, and it's not clear if an unelected Met Council has the "leadership capital" to drive the issue. Still, he said, "the issue will only grow in momentum."