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.
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