Who Killed Cock Robin?

"Who killed light rail?" "I," said the Guv,
"With my little lunch pail, I killed light rail."

"Who helped it die?" "I," said OurLeader
"With my four expensive trophies, I helped it die."

From the Pioneer Press:

Democrats blame Pawlenty for Central Corridor's apparent demise

Legislators don't see a way to bring it back

Article Last Updated: 04/08/2008 01:55:43 PM CDT

Democrats at the state Capitol and in Congress have all but given up on saving the Central Corridor light-rail project after Gov. Tim Pawlenty vetoed state funding for the project on Monday.

At a Capitol news conference today, Democratic legislators, mayors and members of Congress paraded to a microphone to proclaim their outrage and disappointment in Pawlenty's veto of a $70 million state appropriation for the train in the University Avenue corridor between St. Paul and Minneapolis. But they offered no solutions to get it back on track.

"Our solution was on the table," Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Steve Murphy, DFL-Red Wing, said referring to the funding lawmakers approved for the Central Corridor in a $925 million public works bill. Pawlenty used line-item vetoes to chop down that measure by $208 million.

Of nine Democrats who spoke, only two — Rep. Michael Paymar of St. Paul and Sen. Kathy Saltzman of Woodbury — expressed any hope that the $909 million project could be resuscitated. "I don't think the project is dead," Paymar said, noting that Pawlenty and the Legislature still could find a way to fund it.

Saltzman said she told St. Paul Chamber of Commerce officials, "We can't give up. We've worked way too hard in the east metro." Later, she said she would ask people close to the governor to urge him to "keep the door open" on the project.

But all the other speakers pronounced it deceased.

"Yesterday Gov Tim Pawlenty killed the Central Corridor light-rail transit project with his veto pen," said U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum, DFL-St. Paul. She called the veto "reckless and irresponsible" and accused Pawlenty and his appointees of breaking promises to federal and local officials to fund the project if they brought down the cost to his desired level.

The Legislature could override Pawlenty's veto, but Murphy said it would be politically impossible to line up the votes needed because the governor approved the funding for projects in the districts many suburban and rural legislators.

"Unless the governor puts (Central Corridor) back on the table, it's dead," he said.

Officials in about 20 other metro areas around the country "are smiling this morning" because they now have a leg up in competing for the federal transit dollars that would go to Central Corridor, said Hennepin County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin. Twin Cities officials have until early September to apply for about $455 million in federal aid that would pay for half of the project or they will lose the money. All the local funding is in place, he said, but they can't qualify for the federal money without $70 million from the state.

Our Governor's response to goading by the DFL in Minnesota is not a total surprise. I actually thought that he might veto the whole bill and force the legislature to come back with a reasonable number. But he chose to send a message that may have inadvertently been too harsh. Or perhaps it was deliberate; I am not close enough to the pulse of the state legislature to really know.

But one of the consequences of the line item vetoes is that a light rail connection between Minneapolis and St. Paul may be dead for the forseeable future or perhaps for good. There is an outside chance that this is all a ploy for the governor to get a few things on the table of interest to him along with more air in the balloon tire of the light rail project. The governor asked for a cut of roughly one hundred million dollars and when the legislature failed to do this, he cut the bonding proposal by two hundred million dollars.

The city of St. Paul was upset because they took the brunt of the cuts. Some felt that the governor was deliberately targeting St. Paul DFL leadership in retaliation for the override of his recent veto of some tax-related legislation. The governor denies this charge.

Things are strangely silent from OurLeader. Maybe he'd rather have no light rail than one at grade?

He did express his pleasure at four new biomedical research buildings. But the money, several hundred million dollars, makes it quite clear what OurLeader's actual priorities are, since the Bell Museum and the Folwell remodel were not funded. With all the new jobs and the vast new biomedical industry as well as hundreds of millions of dollars of NIH funding that have been promised, you can be certain that Mr. Bonzo will be keeping an eye on these trophy buildings and the trophy researchers that will be acquired to inhabit them.

I feel particulary sorry for Peter Bell who did a masterful job of getting the parties involved to agree on a number that was supposedly what Pawlenty said he wanted. Too bad he changed his mind. Given that cuts could have been made elsewhere, axing light rail doesn't seem rational to me. I guess that is why I have voted for the losing candidate in most recent elections.