House approves transit, arena projects in public works bill

(AP) With only three votes to spare, the House on Tuesday night passed a public works bill that would advance some high-profile mass transit projects and take care of the more mundane roof repairs.

The bill contains $289 million worth of projects, some paid for through long-term borrowing and others in cash. It's slightly smaller than a Senate bill expected to reach a floor vote Wednesday, but much larger than Gov. Tim Pawlenty recommended.

It passed by an 84-45 vote; bonding bills take 81 votes to pass because they add to Minnesota's debt rolls.

The package includes $30 million for a Minneapolis to St. Paul light-rail line. It would be the second link in a chain transit advocates hope to one day expand throughout the region. The new 11-mile route is projected to cost more than $900 million - split among the local, state and federal governments. If all goes as planned, it would be up and running by 2014.

Several other rail lines would receive planning dollars.

House Capital Investment Committee Chairwoman Rep. Alice Hausman, DFL-St. Paul, said the bill reflects a changing attitude toward commuter trains and mass-transit in general.

"What we hear now is not `Don't build one in my part of the state,' but `I want one too and I want it now,"' Hausman said. "That's what we've come to."

Republicans didn't see it that way.

"What we have here is transit gone wild," said Rep. Mary Liz Holberg, R-Lakeville.

She and her GOP colleagues tried unsuccessfully to shift the transit money to road projects to supplement the $10 million in bridge-repair funding already in the bill.

Another amendment to limit the bill to flood relief for Browns Valley and prison repair also failed.

"It isn't our job to be Santa Claus for the state of Minnesota," said Rep. Mark Buesgens, R-Jordan. "There are so many bags of goodies earmarked to specific legislators in this bill that it's an embarrassment."

Hausman disputed claims that the bill was skewed in favor of projects in Democratic legislators' districts. She said she focused on projects that will be leveraged by local, federal or private dollars.

An upgrade of a Duluth convention center and hockey arena would go forward with $30 million from the state's general treasury. Leaky roofs would be repaired and boilers would be replaced on college campuses across the state as part of the $70 million in higher education projects.

Another $30 million would aid school construction on the Red Lake Indian reservation in northern Minnesota.

The Republicans argued that the bill should cover only emergency projects. The last two years have seen public works bills approaching $1 billion each.

The Legislature tends to assemble a big borrowing bill in even-numbered years and approves a smaller package in the other years. There was an exception in 2005 because negotiations deadlocked on a bill the previous year and lawmakers passed nothing.

Pawlenty has the power to strike projects he doesn't like without taking the whole bill down. After giving a pep talk to House Republicans, Pawlenty said the bill troubles him.

"It's too big and it uses to much cash," Pawlenty said.

The governor said the bill's $120 million in cash could be needed to pay for higher priority items during final budget negotiations.