Commentary; Posted: 5/5/04

Northstar bonding off track

T.W. Budig
ECM Capitol Reporter

The anatomy of a train wreck involves diagnosing twisted metal. But with the proposed Northstar Commuter Rail line, diagnosing its derailment in the House involves counting votes and sifting through motives.

Once again, the House bonding bill contains no funding for the controversial commuter rail line from Big Lake to Minneapolis. Gov. Pawlenty may be willing to bond $38 million for Northstar but his former House colleagues are not.

Northstar bonding was stripped from the bonding bill in the House ways and means committee when Rep. Bill Haas, R-Champlin, offered an amendment rerouting some of the bonding to a busway while using the rest as bait to lure votes.

It worked, but Haas, who has received e-mails punctuated with profanity and been accused of ignoring the Coon Rapids side of his district, believes heís been unfairly cast as the heavy in the Northstar drama.

That bonding for the Northwest Busway was cancelled and that was unprecedented, Haas said.

ìThat put me in a terrible position,î Haas said. ìI faced a choice of looking at my friend Kathy Tingelstad, going against her and Anoka County, or vote against Hennepin County.î

Given the circumstances, he believes any other lawmaker would have done the same thing, he said.

Sen. Keith Langseth, DFL-Glyndon, Senate capital bonding chair, believes House leadership orchestrated the failure of Northstar. Theyíve never supported the project, he said.

Certainly, as revealed by a floor vote last week on amendment offered by Tingelstad, R-Andover, Northstar is not wildly popular among House Republican leadership.

Of the 10 members of the House Republican executive board ó a board that helps steer caucus policy ó only three supported Tingelstadís amendment.

The vote among House Republican committee chairs was more even, with 11 ìYesî and 13 ìNo,î but Northstar still lost. House Republican support along the proposed line itself has hardly been robust.

Among some 12 House Republican lawmakers through whose district the proposed line would run or be close to, five voted against the Tingelstad amendment. They are representatives Anderson, DeLaForest, Erickson, Lindner, Mark Olson.

Abeler, Haas, Hackbarth, Knoblach, Olsen, Tingelstad, and Westerberg supported the Tingelstad amendment.

Three Republicans whose districts are in the vicinity of the proposed line ó Eastlund, Vandeveer, Krinkie ó all voted against. All told, 57 of 81 House Republicans voting voted against the Tingelstad amendment.

North Metro Democrats along the proposed line ó Bernardy, Goodwin, Opatz ó all supported Northstar.

Tingelstad regrets she ever offered the amendment.

House Speaker Steve Sviggum, R-Kenyon, crafted the Tingelstad amendment after hours of debate on the House floor and series of withdrawn Northstar amendments.

Sviggum said he wanted to make good the promise of having an up or down vote on Northstar and to get things moving.

Tingelstad had offered an amendment for $10 million in Northstar bonding, but House Republican leadership called a recess before a vote was taken. The amendment was withdrawn.

Two years ago, Tingelstad successfully amended $9 million onto a bonding bill for commuter rail during that sessionís memorable Northstar fight. That bonding bill ultimately failed. Tingelstad feels her $10 million amendment last week could have passed.

Sviggum used about $25 million in higher education asset preservation ó an area with no direct constituency, he explained ó to flesh out the Tingelstad amendment.

But in floor debate, some House DFLers ó a critical block in passing any Northstar bonding ó condemned the sapping of higher education dollars. Out of 51 DFLers voting, 21 voted against the Tingelstad amendment.

What of Gov. Pawlenty? The governor has expressed his displeasure over the omission of Northstar, Minnesota Zoo, and housing bonding ó vaunted Pawlenty projects ó in the House Republican bonding bill.

ìHe will most definitely continue to use his leverage to ensure that key priority projects of his are included in the end,î said Pawlenty spokesperson Leslie Kupchella in an e-mail.

The Senate bonding bill is expected out this week and Langseth said it will contain Northstar bonding.

Langseth believes Sviggum, who voted to bond for Northstar and said it should be in the bill, can either assist commuter rail or kill it depending on who he assigns to bonding bill conference committee.

If Sviggum keeps with the spirit of the caucus, the conferees will oppose Northstar.

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