House approves funding for two rail projects

04/13/2006

Northstar, Central Corridor lines part of $999.9 million package

BY BILL SALISBURY
Pioneer Press

Rail transit projects used to run into a dead end in the Minnesota House. Not anymore.

The House on Wednesday voted 114-16 for a $999.9 million state construction bill that provides money for both the Northstar commuter rail line and a light-rail project in the Central Corridor between downtown Minneapolis and downtown St. Paul.

But the House would spend less on those projects than Gov. Tim Pawlenty and the Senate recommended — and perhaps not enough to keep them on track.

The House had blocked funding for Northstar for five years before last year, when it agreed to allocate $37.5 million for the $265 million ‘Minneapolis to Big Lake’ rail line. This year Northstar officials asked for the final $60 million they say they need from the state to complete the project. Pawlenty and the Senate approved the full amount, but the House cut it back to $50 million. The rest of the money needed for the project came in federal funds.

In addition, the House tacked an ultimatum onto its appropriation. It told Northstar officials to complete the final design for the project by Sept. 30 or the state will take the money back and spend it instead on roads, bridges and the Central Corridor light-rail line.

Capital Investment Committee Chairman Dan Dorman, R-Albert Lea, the sponsor of the construction bill, said he questions whether Northstar officials need the full $60 million when they haven’t spent the money they received last year.

“I have a concern that we are tying up dollars for a project that isn’t going anywhere,” Dorman said. He is particularly concerned that the rail-line officials have not yet reached an agreement with the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. over the use and improvement of the rail company’s tracks.

But Dorman said he is willing to consider increasing the funding for Northstar, if necessary, during upcoming negotiations with senators over the bonding bill. The Senate passed a $1 billion construction bill last month.

The measures are the largest and most important bills of the session. They would fund everything from college classrooms and local roads to prison cells and flood-control projects.

“If this (bonding bill) is the only thing we get done this session and we go home, that’s not a bad thing,” Dorman said.

The House version allocates $2.5 million for preliminary engineering on the Central Corridor project. That’s the same amount Pawlenty recommended, but the Metropolitan Council requested $10 million and the Senate offered $5 million.

House Majority Leader Matt Entenza, DFL-St. Paul, urged the yet-to-be-named House negotiators to agree to a larger amount in the House-Senate conference committee. If the state fails to put up enough money to secure federal funding for the project, he said, “We are at risk of literally strangling to death in traffic and congestion. … Workers will not be able to make it from one part of the metro to another, and business expansion will be halted.”

While the House and Senate are not far apart on total spending in their respective bonding bills, they differ significantly on funding for specific projects. The Senate recommended spending $376 million on state colleges and universities; the House allocated $309 million.

Dorman said the House placed a higher priority than the Senate on local roads and bridges, sewage treatment plants, cleaning up lakes and rivers and rural bioscience and economic development projects.

A House-Senate conference committee is expected to be named and start negotiations shortly after the Legislature returns Tuesday from its Easter-Passover recess.