House OKs bill with Northstar money
02/23/2005
Conrad Defiebre, Star Tribune
February 23, 2005
A five-year fight to push funding for the proposed Northstar commuter-rail line through a reluctant House of Representatives ended Tuesday with one of the strongest shows of support for a capital investment bill in Minnesota legislative history.
Only 12 representatives voted against the $817 million borrowing plan after nearly three hours of debate devoted mainly to its $10 million ante for the controversial 40-mile transit link between Minneapolis and Big Lake. There were 121 ayes, 40 more than the 60 percent supermajority needed to authorize state bond sales.
Repeated attempts to derail the project—by shifting its funding to roads and bridges or to a busway, or by requiring referendums in all the cities it would serve—failed by lopsided vote ratios of at least 3 to 1.
“We heard from citizens across the state that we needed to get the job done, and today we got the job done,” House Speaker Steve Sviggum, R-Kenyon, said afterward.
Legislative gridlock doomed last year’s bonding bill, setting the stage for an election in which the House Republican majority lost 13 seats to the DFL. Some of the GOP losers had helped block the Northstar line in the past, even though they represented districts it will serve.
“This project means a lot to the northwest area,” said freshman Rep. Denise Dittrich, DFL-Champlin, who unseated a Northstar opponent last fall.
House Republican leaders acknowledged that the $10 million line item for the Northstar line probably would not be enough to secure two-thirds federal funding for the $265 million project.
But approval of any contribution by the House is expected to clear the way for conference committee negotiations to reach the $37.5 million level requested by Gov. Tim Pawlenty. Local governments along the route have pledged an equal amount.
House-Senate negotiations are also likely to produce an overall borrowing bill closer to the $1 billion plan approved by the DFL-controlled Senate last month. House leaders said those talks should begin shortly after the state’s budget forecast is issued on Monday.
Growing debt
In addition to resolving differences over specific projects and their funding levels, conferees must agree on how much additional debt service the state can bear while balancing a two-year budget now projected to be at least $700 million in the red.
“The fastest-growing portion of the state budget is not health care or corrections; it is debt service,” said Rep. Phil Krinkie, R-Shoreview. “This bill without question will jeopardize the state’s bond rating.”
Krinkie was one of eight suburban and exurban Republicans, mostly diehard Northstar critics, who voted no on the overall bill. Four northern Minnesota DFLers also opposed it, some to protest the rejection of projects in their districts.
House Minority Leader Matt Entenza, DFL-St. Paul, labeled the bill “half-baked, but enough to get to the final negotiation process.” He called for early House-Senate talks to reach agreement “or else it will get lost in the budget process.”
In addition to the Northstar project, the House bill would raise $244 million for the University of Minnesota and state colleges, $118 million for environmental projects, $115 million for jobs and economic development, $106 million for state prisons and $68.5 million for local roads and bridges.
Also included is $20 million for a University of Minnesota-Mayo Clinic biotechnology research center in Rochester, $6 million for the Minnesota Planetarium in Minneapolis and $3 million for the Phalen Boulevard business corridor in St. Paul.
Legislators say all this building will produce at least 10,000 jobs, some of them in time for the spring construction season. Bonds won’t be sold until after the state sets its operating budget in May or later, but Rep. Dan Dorman, R-Albert Lea, the bill’s chief sponsor, said work can begin with money borrowed from the state’s general fund once the bill is enacted.
Added Dorman: “I’m confident this can be confereed quickly.”