I wish to respond to the letter from David Behling concerning the failed legislative effort to support investment in our transportation system. I agree with Mr. Behling that outstate legislators should not stand in the way of metro light-rail expansion. I do not blindly support light-rail systems, but I would support a region of the state that wishes to pay for the system on their own — especially if their support opens up leveraging federal funding to support the effort and would have cleared the gridlock in St Paul resulting in state funding for projects that would benefit south-central Minnesota. I attended a regional meeting of county commissioners and county engineers this past spring, and a commissioner from a suburban county outlined their self-funded plan to support light rail in their region. It was a plan that was not dependent upon transportation funding from the state.

The No. 1 issue I hear reaching out to voters in the region is frustration with the blaming, finger-pointing and partisanship that occurs in St. Paul. The gridlock in St. Paul resulted in rural Minnesota losing out. We do not have tax relief for working class people. We do not have a transportation plan. We do not have bonding projects — one of which would have directly benefited your regional college campus presently seeing healthy enrollments in the training programs that the project would have directly benefited. And to Mr. Behling’s point and one that I embrace, if we would have had more collaboration, communication and compromise in St. Paul, we might have funding in place to invest in the roads and bridges in south-central Minnesota.

Gary Schindler

Albert Lea