Commentary; Posted: 3/14/07
This time the process really worked
Dave Strom
Guest Columnist
We’re all so used to seeing Washington abuse our trust and waste our tax dollars that it almost comes as a shock to see the process work pretty well.
That was my first reaction to the Federal Railroad Administration’s rejection of the proposed $2.3 billion loan to the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad. Shocked, but then elated; for once the concerns of taxpayers and concerned community activists were both heard and heeded in Washington.
So what went right?
How on earth did a process that usually appears broken actually get it right, and can we replicate the success that taxpayers had on this issue in fighting other waste and abuse by government at all levels?
First of all, let me say that the people who deserve the most credit are the individuals and community activists who have been following this issue for years, before most of us ever heard of the DM&E or its outrageous raid on the Treasury.
Some of these activists have worked in the trenches for years, sacrificing their own time and money fighting this project. Without the years of hard, thankless work they put in this victory would never have been possible.
Obviously Mayo Clinic’s role in pushing their opposition to the project cannot be underestimated, but supporters of the DM&E project who claim that Mayo abused its power as the state’s largest employer to squash a worthy project have got it wrong.
What Mayo was able to do was give some real heft to the diffuse opposition that was already out there, and raise the profile of the project enough to make the politicians and the media give the project the scrutiny that it deserves.
Oddly enough, the political process itself worked pretty well in this case. As opposition to the DM&E project intensified, politicians from both parties started to take a good hard look at what was going on.
Congressman Tim Walz emphasized the project in his campaign, and deserves some credit for helping raise the profile of the issue. It’s not surprising, though, that a candidate and Congressman from the district most effected by the project got involved, and it’s really not clear that Walz’s position was substantially different from Gil Gutknecht’s.
In fact, what is more interesting and surprising is how both our Senators, Norm Coleman and freshman Sen. Amy Klobuchar helped ensure the proper oversight at the federal level. Coleman’s office worked diligently both publicly and behind the scenes to ensure that the project both got the scrutiny it deserved, and that the interests of all parties were addressed.
Sen. Coleman organized a visit from Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters to Rochester to hear out the concerns of Minnesotans, and he helped organize a push to revise the laws to ensure that such huge federal loans in future get the kind of Congressional scrutiny they need.
I was particularly impressed with Coleman’s efforts, simply because it would have been easier to avoid the issue as a potential political loser. Instead, he did the hard work necessary to make the process work for taxpayers, and deserves real credit for doing so.
In the end, Coleman and Klobuchar sponsored a bill in the Senate, and Representatives Bachmann, Kline, McCollum and Walz sponsored a bill in the House to require Congressional approval of any loan from the Department of Transportation over $1 billion.
Seems pretty commonsensical to me. In fact, I would go even further, and question federal loan programs to private industry in general, but that obviously might not get the bipartisan support needed to get something done right now.
As taxpayers and as citizens we should not only breathe a sigh of relief that we dodged a bullet on this one, but also take the time to thank the people who made the process work better than it normally does. The people who deserve the thanks rarely get enough.
This time, we should all do our part to ensure that they get the kudos they deserve.
Dave Strom is president of Taxpayers League Foundation.
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