No more funding for I-94 ‘land bridge’ boondoggle

Today I testified in the House Transportation Finance and Policy committee in support of HF 494, which:

…prohibits the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) and the Metropolitan
Council from expending funds for study, project development, or construction of a proposed land bridge over a segment of Interstate Highway 94 in St. Paul (known as the ReConnect Rondo project).

Here are my remarks:

Chair Koznick and Committee Members,

My name is John Phelan, and I am an economist at Center of the American Experiment, a public policy organization based here in Minnesota. I am here to express my strong support for HF 494.

First, some context.

In February 2023, Minnesota Management & Budget forecast a state government budget surplus of $17 billion for the 2024-2025 biennium. In that “historic” session, the DFL trifecta spent every penny of that surplus and between 2019 and 2024, Minnesota’s state government spending per person and adjusted for inflation increased by 23%.

That “historic” trifecta also hiked taxes and fees by $10 billion, but even this was not enough to cover the explosion in state government spending, and, in November 2024, Minnesota Management & Budget forecast a state government budget deficit of $3.5 billion in the 2028-2029 biennium, or $5.1 billion if you account for inflation.

This deficit — the result of gross fiscal mismanagement by the state government over the last four years — is the central fact of state government finance, never mind speculation on what it might generate or what the costs of building I-94 decades ago might be: We don’t have the money. Given these circumstances, Minnesota’s politicians should be looking to spend less money, not more, and certainly not on schemes such as Reconnect Rondo.

To the project itself.

Reconnect Rondo will cost at least an estimated $450 million, on top of the $6.2 million already appropriated. But if we want “13 acres of park and open space, a business incubator hub or market place” and “a hub for 21st-century careers in tech, engineering, and clean energy—while also providing pathways into traditional skilled trades like plumbing, electrical work, and construction,” there are far cheaper ways of getting them than building a 300 foot tunnel, during the construction of which I-94 will be closed and which will block trucks carrying hazardous materials and increase the severity of motor vehicle accidents. One thing Minnesota is not short of is land.

Reconnect Rondo has always been sold on the notion that the cost will be split between state and federal government. If, as is likely, and understandable given $2 trillion budget deficits forecast until at least 2035, federal funding for the project is pulled, the entire cost of this project will fall on taxpayers across the state.

After four years of fiscal excess, it is time for Minnesota’s politicians to start acting responsibly. I urge you to support HF 494 and stand with the taxpayers of Minnesota.