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(rshsdepot) St. Paul, MN
From today's Pioneer Press.
Bernie Wagenblast
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Union Depot, other key projects win backing
But Gov. Pawlenty says $334 million public works bill too costly, threatens
veto
BY BILL SALISBURY
Pioneer Press
Article Last Updated: 04/30/2007 11:22:38 PM CDT
St. Paul's Union Depot would become the hub for six east metro transit
projects that are funded in a $334 million public works bill passed Monday by the
Minnesota House and Senate.
But that price is too high for Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
It's four times as much as the $81 million he requested. "If they present
that bill to me, it's going to be vetoed in its entirety or go on a dramatic
weight-loss program," Pawlenty said last week. He could line-item-veto
individual projects in the measure, known as the bonding bill.
After signing a $945 million bonding bill in 2005 and a $1 billion
construction measure last year, he said, "This is supposed to be a non-bonding year."
He wanted to limit spending to emergency repairs and a few projects he and
the Legislature had previously favored.
But the House passed a $290 million bonding bill in March, the Senate
approved one costing $320 million in April, and last week a House-Senate conference
committee boosted the price to $334 million. The House passed the revised
bill Monday on an 84-49 vote, and the Senate approved it 45-18.
The legislation funds everything from light-rail transit and a University of
Minnesota biomedical research lab to hockey arenas in Duluth and St. Cloud.
If Pawlenty approves the proposed bus and rail projects in the bill, "this
will be a turning point for the whole metro transit system," said Rep. Alice
Hausman, the St. Paul DFLer who chairs the capital investment division of the
House Finance Committee.
Union Depot would get a $3 million renovation to make it a hub for buses and
trains to Minneapolis, Chicago, Hastings, Hinckley and Hudson, Wis.
The depot would be the terminus for the Central Corridor light-rail line
between downtown St. Paul and downtown Minneapolis. The bill appropriates $40
million toward that nearly $1 billion project. The state money would match a
portion of the federal funds that will enable construction to start.
The depot also would be the end of the line for a proposed high-speed rail
line to Chicago via Red Wing and Winona. The bill allocates $2 million as the
state's share of that federal project.
In addition, the depot would anchor three other transit corridors funded in
the bill. It provides $500,000 to start designing and constructing
park-and-ride lots in the Red Rock corridor from Hastings to Minneapolis via St. Paul,
with a possible extension to Red Wing.
Another $500,000 would go to design and build park-and-ride or park-and-pool
lots in the Rush Line corridor along Interstate 35 and U.S. 61 between St.
Paul and Hinckley.
Woodbury and other eastern suburbs would get in on the transit action under
another provision in the bill. It directs the Metropolitan Council to develop
a plan for bus, light rail or commuter rail service in the Interstate 94
corridor from St. Paul to Hudson.
"That part of the metro region has felt left out of transit planning,"
Hausman said. She credited three new Washington County legislators - Reps. Julie
Bunn of Lake Elmo and Marsha Swails of Woodbury and Sen. Kathy Saltzman of
Woodbury - for putting the I-94 corridor on the transit agenda.
The bonding bill reflects growing legislative support for a more ambitious
regional transit system, she said.
The measure would help derail a train that's already running. It appropriates
$250,000 to cover part of the cost of buying the Minnesota Zephyr's dinner
train's rail line out of Stillwater. The state wants to turn the 6½-mile line
into a recreational trail.
The University of Minnesota would get $14.4 million to renovate an existing
building into a research lab. But the bill doesn't give the U the authority it
sought to borrow money to construct four more bioscience research facilities
by 2016.
Duluth would receive $37 million to renovate and expand its entertainment and
convention center, which includes the University of Minnesota, Duluth,
hockey arena. St. Cloud State University would collect $11 million to enlarge its
National Hockey Center.
St. Paul's plan to transform its 17 miles of Mississippi Riverfront into the
"National Great River Park" got a boost in the bill. It allocates $3.8
million to the project. Hausman said that money, combined with the $2.5 million
that the state appropriated last year, would match the federal funding available
for the project.
Bill Salisbury can be reached at bsalisbury_@_pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5538.
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End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #1537
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