The Met Council and Hennepin County have come to an agreement to share the rising costs of completing the much-delayed and controversial southwest extension of the light rail system.
This comes several months after a $272 million funding gap was revealed. The final agreement calls for each side covering an equal share in capital and startup costs. Hennepin County, which has already contributed more than $1 billion to the project, would pay 55% of the amount through an existing transportation sales tax. The rest of the cost will be paid for with federal money which the Met Council has on-hand.
State Senator Scott Dibble (DFL) tells Tom Hauser on the WCCO Morning News that the $272 million shortfall is still just an estimate and he has concerns about Met Council spending more public funds without oversight.
"It's kind of a best guess, we won't really know what that number is according to the Met Council until next January," Dibble explained. "We also don't know what the deadline, or what the schedule will be. Of course it's many, many years behind schedule. So, it's an interesting announcement to have made in the fact that we lack a lot of data."
A new budget is expected to be sent to funding sources at the federal level early in 2024. The federal dollars being put towards the completion of the light rail project had been set aside for other transportation projects.
Both the Met Council and Hennepin County Board must give approval to the agreement. The 14 mile Green Line extension will run from the Target Field Station in downtown Minneapolis through Saint Louis Park, Hopkins, Minnetonka, and eventually terminate in Eden Prairie.
Cost overruns and construction delays have plagued the Southwest Light Rail project since it began in 2019, and the total cost has ballooned to $2.8 billion which is double the original estimate.
A report from the State Auditor earlier this year said:
Minnesota has a mismatch between the entities that fund the construction of light rail transit projects and the entities responsible for constructing them. We also found that the Metropolitan Council obligated itself to spend money it did not have, added or changed substantial work after the project was bid, and was not fully transparent about the project’s increasing costs and delays.
Dibble was also critical of how the Met Council is operating without oversight, which is a frequent issue brought up by Minnesota's legislators.
"That gets us back to this conversation about how the Met Council operates, out of sight, out of view, without the accountability and transparency and management of an elected body," Dibble says. "They're not accountable except for several steps removed from elected officials. Their governing body is all appointed."
Dibble says he was more interested in hearing how the Met Council was going to "reform" instead of an announcement about more funding for light rail. Dibble adds that enforcement of existing contracts haven't been enforced properly and he's concerned Met Council is not managing contractors, budgets, and instead being willing to spend more public money.
Despite the criticism and transparency issues, the Met Council is pushing forward. There will be 16 stops on the line which is now expected to open in 2027.