Getting what you pay for

Bridge collapse report critical of transportation agency

We can take several lessons in the aftermath of the 35W bridge collapse. One of which is that keeping taxes low and starving government can have negative implications. The independent report suggests that the funding situation at the Pawlenty/Molnau Department of Transportation was part of the blame with mistakes in the inspection process and tainted decision making on what to do with the substandard bridge.

This is what the no taxes, smaller government argument gets you. Governmental agencies incapable of performing vital tasks for the welfare of the people. Is there government waste? Hell yes. But the more constructive discussion is over what spending is important, where is the waste, and how can the revenue be properly and fairly raised? You can't get something for nothing with government too.

Remember, the reason Pawlenty put his Lieutenant Governor in charge of the Department of Transportation in 2003 is that he had made "cutting waste" at the DOT a priority in his campaign. Retrospectively, we can see this was an ill-advised policy that had a role in a major disaster.

Randy Kelly at the DOT?

Again from the MinnPost (they're starting to regularly produce a stream of relevant breaking news), Joe Kimball writes that former St. Paul Mayor, Randy Kelly, has been mentioned as a possible nominee to the Minnesota Department of Transportation.

Kelly certainly shares political philosophy with the governor. He values keeping taxes down at the expense of necessary services and important infrastructure improvements. Current St. Paul mayor, Chris Coleman, has had the difficult task of catching up to the neglect of one term of Randy Kelly, preceded by two terms of Mayor Norm Coleman.

I don't know if Kelly would be a decent choice or not. It's clear that whoever takes over the Department of Transportation will share Pawlenty's vision of building countless roads in the suburbs and Republican areas of Greater Minnesota with tomorrow's money, but spend as little on possible on maintenance or mass transit development. All we can hope for now after several years of Lt. Gov. Molnau at the helm is some competence. It is a sad state of affairs when our main hope when public officials are selected are whether they have the mere competence to do their job.

DFL to fire Molnau soon?

From the Star Tribune: DFL may fire Molnau Thursday, Senate leaders say

Looking forward to it. Hopefully she can be replaced with someone who can run this important agency.