Pawlenty vetoes 3 local projects
Published 9:50 am Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Three of the four projects that would have benefited Freeborn County were line item vetoed from the state bonding bill when Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Sunday chopped the $1 billion bill down to $686 million.
Projects that were cut include a $1 million request to fund the construction of a bridge over Albert Lea Lake for the Blazing Star Trail. The request was part of a larger package for the state’s bike trail system; however, the entire trails money was axed.
Also eliminated was money that could have been used to develop a wildlife management plan at Bear Lake and funds for the Cedar River and Turtle Creek watershed districts in Freeborn, Mower and Steele counties to restore wetlands and reduce flooding.
Though these projects were cut from the bill, Pawlenty left one major Albert Lea project in the bill: the dredging of Fountain Lake.
District 27A Rep. Robin Brown said this project had been tucked away in Senate language and made it through the conference committee into the bill.
It is included as part of the flood hazard mitigation fund.
Brown said while the bill does not specify how much money the project will receive, it has designated the dredging project as a project eligible to receive part of the fund.
The money will be allocated to the state Department of Natural Resources, and project leaders will have to go there and ask for it, she said.
When area leaders presented the project to the Senate Capital Investment Committee last September, the request included $7.5 million in bonding funds.
This is half of the project’s estimated cost of $15 million.
It would include dredging an estimated 1 million cubic yards of sediment, taking the lake from between 5 and 10 feet in depth to a minimum of 12 feet.
“I’m really excited about taking care of the Fountain Lake project,” Brown said. “That will be great for generations to come and it’s going to have such strong value.”
Shell Rock River Watershed Administrator Brett Behnke said he was pleased to find out the project was in the final bonding bill.
“When it was in a lump size like this, it’s harder to line item veto,” Behnke said.
He noted he appreciated Sen. Dan Sparks’ efforts to keep the project in the Senate portion of the bill.
Behnke said local leaders should know by mid summer where they stand with the funding for the project. With all of the flooding this year, many cities designated to receive funds will have their hands out asking for help.
“We want to be first in line to keep our project,” he said.
If the total $7.5 million is received, the remainder of the project’s funds would come from the half-cent sales tax, some federal funding and some local funding, too.
Though she is pleased about the dredging project made it through the bill, Brown said she was disappointed that the governor cut the bill back as small as he did, after at one point he said $725 million was his upper limit for it.
She said she had faith in the bill that was presented to him. While it was geographically balanced — in that it included projects for all of the state — it would have also still allowed the state to keep its triple-A bond rating.
She noted she had a nervous morning as she found out which of the projects remained in the bill and which had been cut.