National Transportation Policy Project Recommendations Highlight Twin Cities’ Advanced and Innovative Transportation Policies

Nov. 23, 2009

Washington, D.C. - The Bipartisan Policy Center’s (BPC) National Transportation Policy Project (NTPP) held a public forum today in Minneapolis, Minnesota to discuss their blueprint for surface transportation reform, Performance Driven: A New Vision for U.S. Transportation Policy, and its implications for the Twin Cities region. The forum, featured as part of the Martin Olav Sabo Lecture Series, held in partnership with the University of Minnesota’s Center for Transportation Studies and the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, attracted prominent local transportation policymakers, academics, business leaders and other key transportation stakeholders.

Participants at today’s event agreed that current national transportation policy fails to recognize and reward innovation, and as a result there are insufficient funds to adequately maintain existing infrastructure. “Metropolitan regions like the Twin Cities bear the burden of misallocated investments,” said NTPP Co-Chair and former Congressman Martin Sabo. “The structure of current federal funding makes it challenging for metropolitan regions to use federal money to solve their transportation problems. Revenue collection should be linked to use and impacts, and the trend toward financing federal transportation investments with non-user based, general funds should not be maintained. The Twin Cities would benefit greatly from a reformed funding structure based on performance and outcomes.”

Minnesota State Representative Mary Liz Holberg participated in today’s panel discussion, highlighting how NTPP’s recommendations inform the direction Minnesota should take with its transportation policy. “Transportation is, and always has been, an important issue to myself and my constituents,” said Holberg. “We need to make sure that our state effectively and efficiently maintains its infrastructure, while also developing ideas for improving our transportation system to better serve our citizens.”

Lee Munnich, Senior Fellow and Director of the State and Local Policy Program at the Humphrey Institute, welcomed participants at today’s event. “We are pleased to join the Bipartisan Policy Center and Center for Transportation Studies in hosting this event and drawing attention to the growing need to overhaul the nation’s transportation system. The goals laid out in the NTPP report show how we can link transportation spending to critical economic, environmental and safety objectives and other key priorities in the Twin Cities area. The University of Minnesota has conducted research on congestion pricing and value capture, innovative types of infrastructure financing, which could be used to achieve these goals.”

“As a member of The Itasca Project, an employer-led alliance aimed at keeping the Twin Cities’ economy and quality of life competitive, we are developing a framework for aligning business leadership around a vision for the surface transportation system,” said Charlie Zelle, President and CEO of Jefferson Bus Lines. “The Itasca Project is incorporating aspects of the NTPP’s key recommendations into our principles. In particular, we’ve adapted the goals related to economic growth, metropolitan accessibility, energy security and environmental protection.”

“The NTPP report proposes a common-sense approach: agree on clear national objectives for spending federal transportation dollars; develop measures to evaluate whether these national objectives are being advanced; and adjust funding to reward good performance with respect to those measures,” said NTPP member Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office. “Spending additional transportation dollars is as important as spending current funds more wisely and in a more targeted way. Comprehensively restructuring federal transportation policies and programs, as recommended in the NTPP report, should be the first order of business.”

Held at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey Institute, the forum attracted many Minnesota transportation experts including: Minnesota State Senator D. Scott Dibble; Peter Bell, Chair of the Metropolitan Council; Peter McLaughlin, Commissioner of Hennepin County; Tom Sorel, Commissioner of Minnesota Department of Transportation; Mike Erlandson, Vice President -Government Affairs of SUPERVALU, INC. and NTPP member; Richard Mudge, Vice President - Delcan Corporation; Laurie McGinnis, Acting Director of University of Minnesota’s Center for Transportation Studies; Humphrey Institute Dean J. Brian Atwood; and Lee Munnich, Director of the State and Local Policy Program at the Humphrey Institute. Sponsorship for the event was provided in part by The McKnight Foundation.

A project of the BPC, NTPP was launched with the goal of bringing fresh dialogue and approaches to transportation policy. Former Congressman Sabo (D-MN) co-chairs NTPP with former Senator Slade Gorton (R-WA), former Congressman Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY), and former Mayor of Detroit Dennis Archer. NTPP’s report, released in June, is the product of a broad, bipartisan coalition of transportation experts, and business and civic leaders. To learn more about NTPP, please visit www.bipartisanpolicy.org.

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National Transportation Policy Project