MN Transport Bill Founders in Waning Days of State Legislative Session
Opposition to expansion of MnPASS tolling helps shoot down state transportation plan
As cash-strapped Minnesota turns to toll lanes to ease traffic congestion, a key project in that strategy is stalled.
A plan to add pay lanes to Interstate 35E in the northeast-Minneapolis metro area and spend that revenue on transportation elsewhere in the Twin Cities ran afoul of a veteran legislator at the end of the session.
"I don't support toll roads in general," said Sen. Ray Vandeveer (R-Forest Lake). "Diverting the tolls to uses other than the road -- maintaining and expanding it -- is even more offensive."
