The Rochester Post Bulletin's Matthew Stolle reports in Walz questions lack of dedicated funding source for Minnesota transportation:
. . .Walz stressed after his speech that he was not calling for a
statewide gas tax increase. Rather, he was calling on state political
leaders to examine all the funding options available to the state, in
order not to miss out on any matching federal funds.
Walz also
has declined to support a 5-cent federal gas-tax increase. Such a
provision was notably absent in the bridge repair and reconstruction
bill unveiled this week by U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar, a Chisholm, Minn.,
Democrat who is chairman of the House Transportation Committee. Walz
sits on that committee.
Walz said he was willing to look at a
federal gas-tax increase, but he said he could not wholeheartedly
endorse it, because a plan has yet to be presented that would mitigate
its regressive effects. Such a tax tends to fall disproportionately on
the poor and lower-middle class.
KAAL-TV reports on the Transportation Alliance meeting in Minnesota May Lose Out on Billions. Former state representative and Republican Dave Bishop is interviewed as well as Walz.
Bishop and another familar political name in Rochester highlight another Stolle article in Community will come first, says new Rochester political coalition. The lead:
Two former state legislators from Rochester have teamed up to launch
a new political organization, one that they say will be committed to
putting community priorities and political common ground above
adversarial, partisan politics.
Sen. Sheila Kiscaden and Rep. Dave Bishop were well-known moderates during their years in the Legislature.
Though
Bishop was a Republican and Kiscaden ended her legislative career as a
Democrat, both developed reputations for their abilities and
willingness to work across the aisle.
Now, they say they want
that ethos of putting community before partisan politics to be the
informing philosophy of their new political action committee called
"Rochester Citizens Coalition."
The leader of the local Republican party isn't happy:
Duane Quam, chairman of the Olmsted County Republican Party, said
the coalition will have a political bent, no matter what the avowed
purpose of the group. He said he would be shocked if any of the money
that the group raises goes to conservative positions.
"It doesn't matter what they call it, it is a left-of-center political group," Quam said.
One of the things singled out in Republican's complaints about "pork" in transoprtation bills are bike trails. Preston's Fillmore County Journal reports that Lanesboro will host a convention of national bike tour operators in Lanesboro becomes a convention destination:
Most national
conventions are held in huge hotel complexes with names like Ramada,
Hilton and Hyatt, facilities with conference centers and catered meals
with all the amenities under one roof.
When the National
Bicycle Tour Directors Association (NBTDA) held their annual conference
in 2006, they chose Lafayette, Louisiana, population 100,000. In 2005
it was in Orlando, Florida; in 2004, they went to Des Moines, Iowa.
This week more than 100 members of the association will descend on
Lanesboro, significantly expanding its population of 780 to, ah, well,
less than a thousand.
The conference is expected to bring in about $45,000 for businesses in the small town, and fill some rooms in the off-season:
"The town's lodging businesses are thrilled about selling out mid-week in November," Harrenstein commented.
The local Chamber of Commerce is testing a "campus approach" in hopes of drawing additional small conventions to the lovely Southeastern Minnesota town:
For the
Chamber's Kiehne, whose job is to look at new and creative ways to
promote Lanesboro, hosting a group that promotes travel through biking
is an ideal market group from which to spread the word about what
Lanesboro has to offer. But hosting the conference also allows the
Chamber to test out a model for holding similar conventions in town in
the future.
"We think this campus approach will work well with
groups of 50 to 75 people who might be looking for a special
experience," she said.
Standing outside the Lanesboro Visitor
Center on a sunny day, Harrenstein scans the skyline and his arm makes
a large swoop of the surrounding landscape of bluffs, river and trail,
"A conference in a hotel room is a conference in a hotel room,
anywhere," Harrenstein said matter of factly. "Who wouldn't want to
come here for a few days."
We've often heard Congressman Walz talk about the ingenuity of Southern Minnesotans. He's right.
KAAL-TV reports DM&E Sale Hits a Snag:
The proposed sale of the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern railroad has apparently hit a snag.
The federal agency that regulates the railroad industry is classifying the sale as, in its words -- a "significant" transaction.
The Canadian-Pacific Railroad, which wants to buy the DM&E for
nearly a billion-and-a-half dollars, categorized the purchase as, what
it called -- a "minor" transaction.
It's more than just a change of a few words.
The decision by the Surface Transportation Board now means CP has to
file an additional application and the review process will now take ten
months.
Over at the Winona Daily News, readers can get a chance to read the entire Dick Day op-ed piece that was published in Thursday's Owatonna People's Press. Since the piece, Walz and Kuntz’s tactics not helpful, is the same column, we're recycling part of yesterday's post too. Here goes:
Day wrote in a column published yesterday:
First off, no one has said that Highway 14 is in jeopardy at this point.
Curious. We've been reading about and linking to the threat to the Highway 14
project for a while. On October 12, the Mankato Free Press reported
in Area road projects in line for biggest losses:
No MnDOT district other
than the Mankato-based District 7 has deferred projects of more than
$5.8 million under the plan released to lawmakers by Transportation
Commissioner and Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau.
The delay of one area project — the $4.8
million for right-of-way acquisition for the expansion of Highway 14
between Waseca and Owatonna — surpasses the total list of proposed
project delays in three other MnDOT districts.
Reaction to the plan by area transportation advocates ranged from exasperated to angry.
“It becomes very clear that either the
governor or the lieutenant governor care very little about the deaths
on Highway 14,” said North Mankato Mayor Gary Zellmer, a member of the
Area Transportation Partnership.
The partnership helps determine the
priority list for transportation spending in the district and has
focused virtually all of the available funding on the Highway 14
expansion in coming years. If the right-of-way acquisition is delayed
by the proposed shift of funding to the bridge project, the expansion
project will be on hold — along with all of the other regional projects
that could have been done if the district hadn’t committed to focusing
$65 million on Highway 14, Zellmer said.
“This is the second time they’ve pulled
this money,” Zellmer said, saying the state previously delayed
providing part of its share of the Highway 14 project to cover a
shortfall in funding for the Crosstown Highway/I-35 commons project in
south Minneapolis.
On October 3, the Mankato Free Press reported Highway 14 funds could be diverted to bridge.
The conservative New Ulm Journal gave a "Thumbs Down" to the possible diversion of funding, and noted:
Highway 14 is one of the most important highway projects in southern
Minnesota. It’s too bad the state hasn’t had the foresight to make sure
it has the money to handle its major projects while it works on the
immediate problem of getting the bridge rebuilt.
Why wasn’t this
issue up for discussion during the recent special session of the
Legislature, the session dealing with the bridge issue? Because
Governor Pawlenty made it clear that he didn’t want the Legislature
expanding the agenda and doing something crazy, like raising gasoline
taxes for the first time since 1988 to help pay for the state’s portion
of the bridge rebuilding, and keeping the rest of our much needed and
often delayed projects on schedule.
On September 22, KEYC-TV, Mankato local television station reported Other Projects May See Delays Because of Bridge Reconstruction:
Turning to state news:State transportation officials say
they may have to delay other projects in order to get started on the
Interstate 35W bridge reconstruction [u]nless legislative leaders give
permission to spend money that hasn't been appropriated yet by the
federal government.The 195 million-dollar federal funding package for
the bridge reconstruction appeared to be on the fast track, but is now
trapped in a transportation bill that President Bush has threatened to
veto. Officials at MN DOT say the department is going through a list of
hundreds of planned projects statewide to see which ones could be
postponed if there's a funding delay.
Perhaps Dick Day should start using a computer;
he could certainly locate plenty of instances of people saying the
Highway 14 was in jeopardy. And since Day thinks everything has been
hunky-dory at in St. Paul, he turns to blaming Congress in the column,
while suggesting that Walz ask for some more earmarks:
.
. .if [Walz]'d like to send home some federal dollars to help expedite
construction like Congressman Gutknecht did, that would be wonderful.
We'll remember that the next time we read the NRCC whining about earmarks. There's more:
In
the meantime, the most valuable thing he can do is push Congress to
make good on its promise to send Minnesota the money we need to rebuild
the bridge.
Yesterday's Mankato Free Press reports Feds release bridge funds. Coleman and Klobuchar provide some bipartisan cheer:
Federal transportation officials released more than
$123 million on Thursday for the reconstruction of the collapsed
Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis, greatly reducing the prospect
that funds will need to be diverted from the Highway 14 expansion and
other planned road projects in south-central Minnesota.
The release of the
federal funds, announced by Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Norm Coleman, comes
after the previous release of $55 million by the Federal Department of
Transportation shortly after the August collapse of the bridge.
“This is great news for Minnesota,” Coleman said.
That’s particularly true for south-central
Minnesota, which was in line to take the biggest hit of any region in
the state under a tentative plan by the Minnesota Department of
Transportation to postpone planned construction projects to free up
money for the bridge reconstruction — which began this week.
Supporters of the Highway 14 expansion were
angry that $4.8 million might be diverted from right-of-way acquisition
between Waseca and Owatonna next year in preparation for the expansion
of the road to four lanes.
In the St. Paul Pioneer Press report on the release, Feds earmark an additional $123.5 million for 35W span, we read:
The $123.5 million was allocated from an
emergency relief fund administered by the Federal Highway
Administration. The same fund was at the heart of a testy written
exchange between U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., chairman of the House
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and Pawlenty.
Oberstar said he was frustrated that the state hadn't applied
for those funds, which stood at $175 million before Thursday's
announcement. Overall, Minnesota received $128 million of those funds,
including $4.8 million in flood relief for southeast Minnesota. The
state of Louisiana received $18.5 million to cover indirect costs
associated with Hurricane Katrina.
Faced with Oberstar's tongue-lashing, the state defended itself
by saying it was working closely with the federal government to
identify costs that could be reimbursed. It apparently went ahead and
applied for the emergency funds.
"We're glad that they asked and got that in," said John Schadl, a spokesman for Oberstar.
And despite Congress's efforts, there's this (guess Day missed it):
The $195 million appropriation is contingent upon
a transportation spending bill that faces a threatened veto from
President Bush, who has said the overall bill is too pricey.
"We're confident that the $195 million will stay in the final transportation/HUD appropriation bill," Schadl said.
Is Dick Day running on anything other than bluster?
Meanwhile, Day's Minuteman friend Ron Branstner writes a letter to the Palm Springs Desert Sun, touting the newly forming Lincoln Club's film festival. The Lincoln Club is a local Republican organization in Palm Springs. Branstner lives in a gated community in Cathedral City, California.
We'd hoped to have our head cold clear up and write more substantial pieces today, as there's much analysis to be made, but we're still under the weather. Here's a collection of commentary from around the blogosphere. Over at DailyKos, Maura Satchell, of the Veterans and Military Families for Progress, promotes three veterans running for office, including Tim Walz. The pitch is all her personal iopinion and not a plug by CMFP:
