Pawlenty has a credibility problem

Governor Pawlenty has gotten by with a lot of dishonesty with his boyish looks and aw-shucks mannerisms. But yet again, here's a perfect example of how his credibility is really zero among anybody who actually thinks. Nick Coleman nails it in his recent column:

"At no point did anyone say the bridge needed to be closed," the governor has said.

But according to an Aug. 19 Star Tribune story by reporters Tony Kennedy and Paul McEnroe, state officials had "talked openly" about the possibility of a bridge collapse.

Inspection reports dating to the 1990s suggested critical issues required "immediate maintenance" and calls for that maintenance grew more urgent after the Pawlenty administration took office in 2003.

Maybe it is coincidence that Pawlenty-Molnau imposed a no-tax ideology on state government, especially in transportation, where Molnau cut back on snowplowing while laying off employees and placing loyalists in key positions.

But what we have now in the Mississippi is a bridge that was carrying 140,000 vehicles a day despite missing bolts, cracked girders, severe corrosion and a tilted pier -- a bridge with parts "beyond tolerable limits."

A leader shouldn't say he didn't know the bridge might collapse. A leader demands to know why his appointees didn't tell him it might fall.

Maybe this catastrophe will result in a few more people using their brains.

Wobbling bridge finally fell

This seems to be rather revealing: apparently the 35W bridge was felt to wobble by construction workers resurfacing it on the days preceding its collapse.

Here's a letter to the Star Tribune editors, talking about that point:

The bridge had been wobbling

In the Aug. 4 front page article "Disbelief gave way to action for first responders," there was a recounting of information gathered from Minneapolis Police Sgt. Tim Hoeppner. On page A11, the continued article reads, "Hoeppner talked to construction workers who survived the fall. They had been doing repair work but expressed concern to him that the bridge had been wobbling several days before it collapsed."

What?! This is shocking! It goes on to say, "Every layer of concrete the workers removed, the bridge would wobble even more, they told Hoeppner."

Can Star Tribune reporters find out if these workers passed this information to supervisors, MnDOT or to other government representatives?

The headline should have been, "Wobbling bridge finally fell."

LAURA THOMAS, MINNEAPOLIS

Sure enough. I just re-read that article, and here's what it said:

At the site, Hoeppner talked to construction workers who survived the fall. They had been doing repair work but expressed concern to him that the bridge had been wobbling several days before it collapsed. Every layer of concrete the workers removed, the bridge would wobble even more, they told Hoeppner.

I think that's a pretty good clue that further investigation should have been done.

Why did the 35W bridge collapse?

Virtually every state in the USA gets the majority of its money for interstate and U.S. highways, as well as bridges for such roads, from the federal government. The federal government is also the biggest fund source for all transportation projects. The majority of the money for light rail projects, such as the one completed recently in Minneapolis, come from the federal government. The federal DOT also specifies the safety and construction specifications which must be used for any projects which receive federal dollars. Despite that, the blame doesn't lie with the federal government. On-going maintenance and inspection responsibility generally lies with each state, even if reconstruction projects obtain federal dollars.

In Minnesota, the responsibility for maintenance of the 35W bridge lies with MnDOT, the Minnesota Department of Transportation. Of course, MnDOT's direction and funding come from elected and appointed politicians. MnDOT has been headed by Lt. Governor Carol Molnau, who was appointed to the position by Governor Tim Pawlenty in 2003.

The Pawlenty/Molnau administration (coming up on 2 terms now) have been in favor of tax cuts, and have strangled Minnesota's widely-praised high investments and pay-offs in infrastructure and education. Now the state's infrastructure -- highways, airports, railways, etc. -- and education system are suffering.

According to this story in the St. Paul Pioneer Press:

On her watch, MnDOT staff has been reduced 15 percent to 4,587. Last year, the department's professional engineering staff was down to 420, a 9 percent drop during her administration.

The union representing MnDOT's blue-collar workers contends she has cut muscle and bone, even down to short-staffing the state's snowplowing needs.

"Morale in that department is at an all-time low," said Bob Hilliker, state field director for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 5.

Last year, highway contractors rebelled when MnDOT asked its construction companies to front the state up to $96 million to help finance the I-35W-Crosstown project when federal payments were delayed. The private financing plan flopped, forcing postponement of the $250 million project for a year.

The harshest criticism of Molnau, by both Republicans and Democrats, is that she has failed to advocate for the funding required to meet the state's transportation needs. By MnDOT's own estimates, there's a $1 billion-a-year gap between its anticipated revenues and needs from now to 2030 - and a $2.4 billion annual shortfall for the next six years.

She opposed increasing gas taxes to plug that gap, arguing instead for more borrowing and moving the state toward a tax based on how many miles people drive instead of how much gasoline they use - a system she acknowledges will take several years to develop. Pawlenty shared that view and vetoed gas tax increases passed by the Legislature in 2005 and earlier this year.

"I don't think she has had any vision of transportation, and she did not advocate for the department, and I think that she should," said Rep. Ron Erhardt, R-Edina, who has long supported a gas tax hike.

ANTI-TRANSIT REPUTATION

No fan of rail mass transit, Molnau hasn't shared Pawlenty's enthusiasm for the Northstar commuter rail line and light-rail lines in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

"She is very hostile to transit and transit interests, actively so in my opinion, and hostile of any inquiries that are made of her on transit," said Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, who served with Molnau in the House and now chairs a Senate transit subcommittee.

Molnau has turned the MnDOT into a train wreck in progress. Good people are leaving and have left, because of the hostile environment promulgated from the top and because of butchered budgets.

Prior to being Lt. Governor, Molnau was the chair of the state legislative committee which made all the financing decisions for state transportation spending. She held that position for many, many years. She gradually choked all the money out of the system over those years, piling up huge amounts (billions) of deferred maintenance and upgrades. People who spend hours sitting in traffic jams, wasting time and gasoline, and generating pollution can thank Carol Molnau. In the late 1990s, Molnau was asked about the increasing traffic jams in the Minneapolis - St. Paul metro area. Her reply (paraphrased from the radio) was essentially: "What traffic jams? I commute every morning to the capitol from my home in Chaska and don't see any traffic jams." Molnau neglected to mention to the reporter that she typically commuted to the capitol at 5am, before most people were even awake, so of course, she didn't see any traffic.

But Molnau was not alone in this. At the same time she was in the legislature de-funding MnDOT, Tim Pawlenty was the house majority leader, whipping the rest of his Republican party members into voting against needed infrastructure funding. Now as Governor No New Taxes, he has continued to cut into the quality of life Minnesota was famous for, a result of its earlier investment in infrastructure and education. He has twice vetoed small gasoline tax increases -- a tax which has fallen far behind inflation having not been increased in many years.

Molnau and Pawlenty are a new breed of Republican in Minnesota, cut from the same cloth as GW Bush, it seems. Past Republicans, like former Governor Arne Carlson, are in complete opposition to the wrong-headed methods practiced by the current administration. MnDOT is a sick, twisted version of its former self. Corruption oozes from the Pawlenty administration. It's no surprise that bridges like the one which collapsed are not getting the inspection, repair and replacement attention they need. The Federal government rated the collapsed bridge as "structurally deficient" in 2005. Nothing has been done to remedy that situation since. Pawlenty was elected in 2002.

Draw your own conclusions.