Legislature.com

MoDOT news release:

JEFFERSON CITY – The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission today announced the resignation of Pete Rahn as director of the Missouri Department of Transportation. Rahn’s resignation will be effective April 23, 2010.

“It’s with a very heavy heart that we have accepted Pete’s resignation,” said Rudy Farber, chairman of the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission. “We want to thank him for his outstanding service to Missouri and certainly wish him well in his new career and in having more quality time to spend with his family.

“His innovative and highly effective leadership was exactly what was needed to handle the challenges MoDOT faced when he became director,” Farber said. “As a result, Missouri’s transportation system is now in much better shape and MoDOT has reestablished a positive reputation with the public.”

The Commission will name an interim director and undertake a national search for Rahn’s replacement.

“MoDOT is a tremendous organization filled with talented and dedicated employees,” Rahn said. “I feel very fortunate I have been allowed to associate with these exceptional people.”

Rahn has served as director since September 2004. He will be assuming a position of Senior Vice President with HNTB, a Kansas City-based engineering firm. He will lead HNTB’s national transportation practice.

“I am excited about the opportunity to take on the very challenging role being offered to me by HNTB,” Rahn said.

Here’s the top on a Bob Priddy story at Missourinet.com this morning:

“An unprecedented day in state government ends with more than 50 ideas for streamlining state government and making it more cost-efficient. The idea that the entire senate would forego almost an entire day of debate to consider public comments, agency recommendations, and legislative proposals to let state government survive giant budget cuts was unheard of until a few days ago.

But for the better part of seven hours, eight four-senator committees looked into cutting costs. Two themes seemed to flow through all of the recommendations: eliminating unnecessary boards and commissions, and consolidation and cooperation in the field of education.

One group suggested a two-thousand cut in the prison inmate population by getting the right mix of inmates.. Other groups called for an overhaul of the tax credit program, reshaping social programs, even prohibiting drunk or drugged drivers from suing the transportation department for some crashes.”

Bob’s story includes audio report of all eight special Rebooting Missouri committees.

We missed the final 30 seconds or so of Lt. Governor Kinder’s remarks but you can watch the news conference in its entirety here and listen to audio of the news conference at Missourinet.com.

This is an unprecedented day at the state capitol…..where the state senate is spending the day putting together proposals to reshape state government in the face of serious financial problems. Eight groups of four senators are working on suggestions from the public, fellow lawmakers, and state employees for ways to make state government at least one-half billion dollars smaller. The process started about two weeks ago when the state senate began soliciting ideas from the public about ways to shrink state government.

Read Bob Priddy’s story (with audio) at Missourinet.com