The Met Council says it will continue to push the Southwest Light Rail Project forward, despite a legislative audit revealing last week that the project is short more than $500 million in necessary funding.
Met Council Chair Charlie Zelle told legislators yesterday his team is actively reviewing where that money will come from and that they will announce that by the end of the year.
"I think that it is important for the project to move forward because that is in the region's best interest. The cost of closing down, as we've seen in the rare cases in other parts of the country is drastically more expensive."
Zelle pointed toward unexpected delays as the reason for the ever-increasing budget, although several legislators pushed back, saying the costs should and could have been foreseen.
The State's Legislative auditor Judy Randall told legislators Thursday that a more comprehensive audit will be released as soon as possible in 2023.
"We're finding that just as it's a big infrastructure project it's a really big evaluation. So, we are seriously considering issuing a series of evaluation reports in the interest of getting you information as quickly as we can but also be as thorough as we can."
The initial audit found the project is still short more than $500 million to meet its budget. Randall said the next round of audits hopes to figure out why the project's timeline and budget have doubled since the initial approval.