Molnau - Governor-Elect Tim Pawlenty

Molnau - Governor-Elect Tim Pawlenty has appointed his Lieutenant-Governor-Elect, Carol Molnau, to lead the Minnesota Department of Transportation.

By having the lieutenant governor at the helm, the financially strapped state gets to pocket the transportation commissioner's annual salary of $108,000. Molnau, who will become the first woman to run MnDOT, will receive the lieutenant governor's salary — $78,197 per year.

"In my view it's time for the lieutenant governor to get to work. Without being unkind, it's not the most demanding job in the world," Pawlenty said.

Jesse Ventura's second fiddle, outgoing Lieutenant Governor...let me look this up...ah, yes, Mae Schunk, took umbrage to Pawlenty's remarks:

"We're not like a spare tire. A spare tire you put in a car and it hangs there until you need it," she said. The lieutenant governor is "like a backup quarterback. When you need them they are prepared, they're actively engaged, they're knowledgeable, they know the plays and they know what has to be accomplished if they can get out there."

Sort of like...a spare tire?

The appointment drew criticism from the usual suspects - the non-profit community and the Minnesota Left:

"We are concerned about the selection of Lt. Gov.-elect Carol Molnau as commissioner of MnDOT. In the past she has judged transit projects by ideology and politics," Lea Schuster, executive director of Transit for Livable Communities, said in a written statement.

"She's never been a fan of transit. I don't think the transit community found the strongest advocate in her appointment," said [former Republican In Name Only] Sen. Dean Johnson, DFL-Willmar.

Pawlenty's three key issues were public safety, no new taxes, and easing the Metro's traffic congestion through road construction, a switch from the Ventura administration's fixation (inherited from the Metropolitan Council, the Twin Cities' un-elected planning-body-cum-government) with light rail. Molnau's appointment shows he's serious about the issue.

Not to say I entirely agree with Pawlenty's road-centric views - there's a very strong case to be made for commuter rail in and around the Twin Cities, using existing rails and right-of-way, and older rolling stock. According to some estimates, a genuine commuter rail line could actually break even or turn a profit - in the private-sector sense of the term! - if run under those conditions.

But that's not what Tim Penny, Jesse Ventura, and the Met Council want. They want light-rail - custom-built, brand-new, on freshly-purchased rights of way, on rails incompatible with any other rolling stock. And that means money - lots of it - and endless financial losses, to make what is in effect a statement to the world, rather than a transportation solution.

Posted by Mitch at January 2, 2003 04:50 PM