In a new twist on the traditional charity bake sale, along comes a proposal for selling vanity license plates to pay for delayed upgrades to dangerous stretches of Minnesota Hwy. 14.

Partly a protest of a shortage in conventional highway funding, the idea also seizes on a desire to find creative ways to pay for projects the state won’t buy on its own.

“We need to be very innovative and creative … and think of new ways to provide these services,” said Minnesota Department of Transportation Commissioner Tom Sorel, whose agency finds itself $50 billion short on funding for highway projects over the next two decades.

While the license plate idea hasn’t won legislative approval, other ideas have gained traction, like financing projects with “mini-bonds” sold to individuals as investments, or having more employers help to pay for intersections that benefit their businesses.

But even some supporters of the new methods have misgivings about private bankrolling of public highways and long for a time when the state placed a higher priority on such projects.

“The state highway system and the roads and bridges of Minnesota are a public asset and a public need,” said Rep. Terry Morrow, DFL-St. Peter, sponsor of the Hwy. 14 license plate proposal. “The costs should be borne by the state and the local units of government.”

Those prospects are dim, though, with a GOP Legislature and a DFL governor unwilling to hike gas and other highway taxes. That leaves lawmakers and transportation officials looking for new ways to build fewer projects.

Eyes are now on Texas, where investors are helping finance the rebuilding and maintenance of the LBJ expressway in Dallas in exchange for a portion of future tolls. The $2.7 billion overhaul is nearly 10 times the cost of Minnesota’s Crosstown Commons project.

“It was really the only option, other than taking all of the available funding for our entire region for construction projects for years

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