Our Governor is shocked and in awe. Met Council's staff's capability with numbers, of all things, called into question. Cost escalation gaming can only be so outrageous, and then the sheriff calls, "Foul."
Companion Strib link to the Gov's statement text, online here.
Visions and revisions get suspicious, when every revision is big-bucks-higher and suitably more Byzantine than its immediate predecessor.
Eventually, after bankrupting the state by 2050, the thing could be built. By then costing a "national debt" level of dollars. Trillions. And still with multiple pockets of along-route citizen bitching over this/that aspect of routing (in)convenience.
Such considerations preceding Northstar, who knows ...
Error and cost might have been lessened.
Waste on comp plans - on the entire comp plan process especially including but not limited to the frequency at which plans are forced to be generated and updated, and the arbitrary unreasonableness of Met Council's quota setting, might be the next areas for officials to question and investigate as to whether there is suitable staff competency at play.
It seems they invent numbers, and are overstaffed and short on imagination and cost controls. It seems little more than welfare for the State's comp-plan consultancy sub-population - hire the right one, get Met. Council staff fast tracking of your plan, etc..
Fast tracking but only after the consultants' have gotten their share. It's only decency, since some of those consultants are former MC staffers, or friends of staffers, now or even dating back to bonds formed during planning school days.
With knives and forks on the consultancy table, consultants gotta eat something. Eating your money is as good as anything.