MN Legislators look to rein in Met Council

Over 20 Minnesota legislators did a nice job today of summarizing the latest news in the ever evolving case against the Met Council's pet project, Southwest Light Rail:

• The Met Council supplied two sets of financials for SWLRT - one to state decision makers, and one to federal funders. Naturally, the numbers look much better to the feds so that the Met Council can ask for its $1 billion in federal funding for the rail line
• Emerging questions of basic competence as the Met Council threw out all construction bids for the project, and then barred 36 contractors from even bidding on it for reasons that make no logical sense
• The giant, 1.4 mile long Crash Wall that now needs to be installed to meet the safety requirements of the co-located railroad
• Financial ineptness, as the decision by Hennepin County to raise taxes to pay for SWLRT has now limited the City of Minneapolis' ability to collect sales tax - just in time for the purported tax windfall from the upcoming Super Bowl activity

The 2018 legislative session should be a raucous one when it comes to Met Council reform, especially with the Governor's race on the ballot. Let the fun (and reforms) begin!