One of a handful of moving parts in a state budget deal that’s still in flux will be sent to the desk of Gov. Tim Walz this week.
The result of that deal means a controversial Twin Cities-to-Duluth passenger rail project will be effectively derailed before it begins.
This weekend, lawmakers in both the state House and Senate voted to approve HF1143, a bill that provides $100 million in unemployment aid for hourly school workers over the summer.
DFL legislators, Education Minnesota and affiliated unions have argued that part-time hourly workers in public schools should receive unemployment aid in the summer months when they are not in the buildings. While the bill they passed this weekend is a short-term fix, DFL legislators say they are prepared to fight to make it a permanent fixture in the education budget.
In exchange for that concession, Republican leaders in the House were able to convince their DFL counterparts to fund that item with $77 million in appropriations that were previously dedicated to the Northern Lights Express project. The House passed the bill reflecting that deal on Friday night.
Republican legislators who have been criticizing commuter and light rail projects over much of the last decade said the passage of the bill reflects an “end” to the rail proposal.
“For years, Democrats have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on wasteful rail projects that Minnesotans barely use and can’t afford,” said Rep. Jon Koznick, R-Lakeville, co-chair of the House Transportation Committee.
“With the House and Senate voting to shift a significant amount of the state’s share of the project’s funding, the Northern Lights Express train is effectively dead, and taxpayers are better off because of it,” he added.
While the House unanimously voted to pass the bill on Friday, it took until late in the day on Sunday for the Senate to pass the bill, on a 44-23 vote. All 22 “no” votes came from Republican senators, one of whom said the process of moving transportation funds to education appropriations feels like late-session “shifts and gimmicks.”
“I think taking this money that came from the transportation realm to here and without actually going through the education committee and going through the transportation committee to have this discussion and having it part of the [budget] targets for consideration of either one, I don’t believe this is the right way to go about doing this,” said Sen. Jason Rarick, R-Pine City.
“What we should be doing here is sending this money to the general fund and allocating in the [budget] targets to the committee to bring it in and then have it be a part of the committee’s omnibus bill,” Rarick added.
According to Koznick, roughly $108 million in state funding for the rail project remains following the shift. However, his office explained in a press release that redirecting a significant portion of the state’s share makes it “now nearly impossible to receive federal funds, which are not likely anyway.”
“As Chair of the Transportation Committee, I’ll continue working to make sure that the remaining $108 million is spent on things that really matter like building roads, repairing bridges, and investing in the transportation systems and infrastructure that Minnesotans use and rely on, not billion dollar trains to Duluth,” Koznick said.
Hank Long
Hank Long is a journalism and communications professional whose writing career includes coverage of the Minnesota legislature, city and county governments and the commercial real estate industry. Hank received his undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota, where he studied journalism, and his law degree at the University of St. Thomas. The Minnesota native lives in the Twin Cities with his wife and four children. His dream is to be around when the Vikings win the Super Bowl.
