Needs Vs. Wants

More from Logical Lady Sue Jeffers

When Rep. Kathy Tinglestad showed up at her BPOU convention yesterday, she provided a copy of the DOT Legislative audit to justify her vote to support the transit bill. The audit stated that roads and bridges have improved in the last 6 years but funding is falling behind. The report said more money is needed for road and bridge funding. The problem for our legislature is that they are simply not spending money on roads and bridges this year.

Legislators are considering spending hundreds of millions of dollars on various projects instead of roadsand bridges. Just some of the projects include the Thief River Falls pedestrian and bicycle pathways system; ice arena complex in the city of Crookston; renewable energy clean air project in Koochiching County; AgLan Center; electrical system of the Yellow Medicine County Agriculture and Transportation Museum; Bemidji Regional Event Center; regional community center in Upsala; Prairie Ecology Center in Jackson County; Duluth Entertainment Convention Center arena, Paynesville, Cold Spring downtown riverfront redevelopment project; National Hockey Center at St. Cloud State University; Pemberton community center; Mankato to predesign and design a performing arts theater and Southern Minnesota Women's Hockey Exposition Center; Mayo Civic Center Complex in Rochester; Minnesota Wildlife Art Museum; senior center in the city of Mora; Guidant John Rose Minnesota Oval; Camp Eden Wood in Eden Prairie; Burnsville Performing Arts Center; Richfield athletic fields, Asian Pacific Cultural Center; acquisition and renovation of a building for St. Paul Youth Services.

Listed below is another $100 million in requests that could also be spent on roads and bridges instead of election year bribes for incumbent DFL districts. As you know this is just a partial list of funding requests. I have attached bill numbers and authors for your convenience.

HF3002 (Moe) A bill for an act relating to capital improvements; appropriating money for state trail acquisition, rehabilitation, and repair; authorizing the sale and issuance of state bonds. $29 million.

HF 2302 (Welti) Great River Ridge Trail funding provided, bonds issued, and money appropriated. $1.34 million

HF697 (Welti) Chester Woods Trail funding provided, bonds issued, and money appropriated. No dollar amount listed

HF143 (Peterson, A.) Minnesota River Trail funding provided, bonds issued, and money appropriated. $1 million

HF2594 (Dill) North Shore state parks and trails funding provided, bonds issued, and money appropriated. (The Committee will only hear the trail portion of the bill at this time.) $9.6 million

HF2461 (Gardner) Rice Creek North Regional Trail funding provided, bonds issued, and money appropriated. $2.189 million

HF2598 (Hosch) Stearns County; Rocori Trail funding provided, bonds issued, and money appropriated. $2.02 million

HF2199 (Hansen) South St. Paul span arch bridge funding provided, bonds issued, and money appropriated. $800,000

HF2511 (Koenen) Clara City walking path funding provided, bonds issued, and money appropriated. $850,000

HF858 (Sailer) Big Bog State Recreation Area funding provided, bonds issued, and money appropriated. $1.6 million

HF2834 (Wollschlager) Cannon River pedestrian bridge funding provided, bonds issued, and money appropriated. $2 million

HF2707 (Lenczewski) Bloomington; Old Cedar Avenue Bridge replacement funding provided, bonds issued, and money appropriated. $2 million

HF1026 (Hortman) Anoka County bicycle and pedestrian trail funding provided, bonds issued, and money appropriated. No amount listed

HF1369 (Garofalo) Cannon River pedestrian bridge funding provided, bonds issued, and money appropriated. $1.5 million

HF1522 (Lillie) Gateway Trail tunnel funding provided, and money appropriated. $650,000

HF2284 (Demmer) Mantorville; Stage Coach Trail and welcome center design grant provided, bonds issued, and money appropriated. $100,000

HF2829 (Hornstein) Minneapolis; Grand Rounds parkway improvements funding provided, bonds issued, and money appropriated. $2 million

HF2819 (Johnson) Lower Afton Trail funding provided, bonds issued, and money appropriated. $450,000

HF2848 (Bly) Mill Towns State Trail construction funding provided, bonds issued, and money appropriated. $1 million

HF2881 (Faust) Mora; Spring Lake Trail funding provided, bonds issued, and money appropriated. $100,000

HF2914 (Pelowski) A bill for an act relating to capital improvements; appropriating money for the Wagon Wheel Trail; authorizing the sale and issuance of state bonds. $249,000

HF2917 (Pelowski) A bill for an act relating to capital improvements; appropriating money for an extension of the Root River State Trail; authorizing the sale and issuance of state bonds. $1.641 million

HF2929 (Koenen) A bill for an act relating to capital improvements; appropriating money for a segment of the Minnesota River Trail; authorizing the sale and issuance of state bonds. $4.5 million

HF2431 (Nornes) Vergas; Roger Hanson Memorial Trail completion funding provided, bonds issued, and money appropriated. $50,000

Is it any wonder that the citizens of Minnesota have no faith in their elected officials when it comes to solving the REAL problems facing this state. None of this (mostly from the bonding bill) money should be spent on anything other than roads and bridges, roads and bridges, roads and bridges....then when the roads and bridges are finally up to par, then we can take a look at spending money on the "nice to haves".