Thune railroaded taxpayers with bill

08/27/2006

By Mark Frederickson | Rochester, Minn.

It’s outrageous that a freshman U.S. senator, John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, can operate as a lobbyist for DM&E right up until his election and then once in office slip $2.5 billion taxpayer dollars into the transportation bill tailored for his former employer. That $2.5 billion corporate welfare for DM&E comes at our expense, an expense by the way that U.S. Rep. Gil Gutknecht helped pass on to us by neither voicing opposition nor voting to stop.

Adding to that outrage, last week we learned that DM&E commissioned a push poll — polling with leading questions pushing respondents to answer in a manner to show the results they want — showing how much Minnesotans love their project. As unethical as push polling is, it’s even more so when DM&E won’t release the questions, the order of the questions or the context of the leading questions.

This week DM&E’s Kevin Schieffer and Gutknecht will be in Rochester with their dog and pony shows — neither open to the public. It’s time citizens tell them that a world-class medical facility like Mayo, the largest private employer in southern Minnesota, should have its objections to this coal train respected. Investing $2.5 billion dollars into a polluting energy source that is a technology of the last century is a shortsighted use of our tax dollars. If DM&E’s coal train is a good idea, let Schieffer float it in the private market and find his funding there.