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Committee lays over bill to channel MnDOT efficiency savings into Corridors of Commerce program
Summary
Chair Cagle's bill would account for MnDOT efficiency savings and direct a portion to the Corridors of Commerce program. Witnesses described nearly $900 million of reported efficiencies since 2014 and raised technical and programmatic concerns about redirecting planned funds.
The House Transportation Committee on March 24 laid over House File 7 12, a proposal from Chair Cagle to document MnDOT efficiency savings and direct those savings into the Corridors of Commerce program.
Chair Cagle described statutory requirements dating to 2014 and 2017 that ask MnDOT to identify efficiencies in department operations and project delivery and noted that the department has reported nearly $900 million in cumulative efficiency savings since 2014. The bill would account for those efficiencies and repurpose part of them toward Corridors of Commerce investments, subject to statutory language and fiscal mechanics.
Bentley Graves of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce supported the measure as a step to make efficiency savings 22more real22 and to increase transparency about how those dollars are used. Graves said MnDOT has reinvested efficiencies in the past but that the bill seeks to create a clearer and more durable mechanism to direct that money into transportation priorities.
MnDOT Chief Financial Officer Josh Kentrude Heubinger told the committee he appreciated the intent but raised two concerns. Programmatically, he said the $90 million figure referenced in testimony represents the 15% threshold of certain appropriations and that redirecting those dollars to Corridors of Commerce could reduce planned pavement and bridge work in MnDOT27s longer-range maintenance plans. Technically, Heubinger said the department27s practice is to identify realized savings after projects are let, not to bank a pooled pot of savings up front, and the bill27s language would need work to reflect the department27s budget and accounting processes.
DVS/finance staff noted the statutory baseline and the calculation that produced the roughly $90 million example; committee members and the author expressed openness to addressing technical language. The bill was laid over to allow further drafting and coordination with MnDOT and fiscal staff.
