Hwy. 14 group looks to redistricting

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

OWATONNA -- Legislative redistricting was on the Highway 14 Partnership's mind Thursday in Owatonna.

Members debated whether redistricting will help or hinder lobbying of state legislators and congressmen about supporting U.S. Highway 14 four-lane expansion.

Meeting with three area Republican lawmakers, the committee was reminded by State Rep. Bill Kuisle, R-Rochester, assistant majority leader in the 2002 Legislature, that "there may be as many as 50 new faces in the House alone next year."

With the number of veteran legislators retiring, Kuisle couldn't promise what kind of mix would be present in the 2003 Legislature. "It's going to be scary."

The partnership has been pushing for four years now, both in the Minnesota Legislature and the U.S. Congress, for additional funding to complete construction of a four-lane highway from Rochester to New Ulm.

The alliance had been hoping for a gas tax increase of at least seven cents a gallon to come out of the 2002 legislative session. Instead, no transportation funding bill was passed.

Corey Elmer of Flaherty and Hood, St. Paul, lobbyists and advisers to the partnership, said the good news was that the final bonding bill was "50-50 rural and urban. I think it's a tragedy that we couldn't get it done in the end."

"There was a bigger push this year to get something done," Kuisle said, "but I believe governor's politics played a big part in stopping it." By that, he said he meant that the governor's plan to use gas tax moneys to fund the battle of the budget deficit was a stumbling block.

Also, Kuisle who chaired the transportation funding conference committee said there was no unanimity on how much to increase the gas tax or even whether to raise it at all.

"Will it be something greater than 3 cents a gallon next time," Kuisle asked. "Could we go higher? Certainly, we could go more than that. But things like highway right-of-way acquisition, particularly in the metro areas, is scary in terms of cost. What we're seeing in the Rochester area is that some of the locals (governments) don't have the matching resources for these projects."

Committee members considered the loss of U.S. Rep. Mark Kennedy, R-Minnesota, who will now seek re-election to Congress in the new Sixth District, a blow to their efforts to get additional federal funding for the project.

"Even though Kennedy is gone, having him on the House transportation committee may be better than [U.S. Rep. Gil] Gutknecht's platitudes," said Councilor Joel Albrecht, representing New Ulm on the committee.

"We will be on Gutknecht big time," State Sen. Dick Day, R-Owatonna, promised. "We do get pots of money, but it goes into the metro area."

"Now that he has the entire Highway 14 project within his district, he's going to be more aware of Highway 14 needs," Kuisle said.

State Rep. Connie Ruth, R-Owatonna, concurred. "It's a whole new area for Gil, but I believe he will respond well to it and be very effective."

U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton's State Director, Jim Gelbmann, told the group his boss is "committed to fighting hard for funding for the project." Dayton, who met with the partnership in February, is attempting to get $3 million this year for initiating work on the environmental impact statement for the North Mankato-to-New Ulm segment, the final leg in the presently proposed expansion project.

"He's also committed to obtaining $32 million to accelerate work on the Eagle Lake-Rochester segment," Gelbmann explained. This funding would be a part of the 2003 transportation funding authorization bill.

"While this bill doesn't contain actual funding, it sets the parameters under which federal funds would be authorized over a six-year period," Gelbmann said.

Kuisle praised the Minnesota Department of Transportation for its use of the "design-build" concept now being used in construction projects within MnDOT's Rochester District 6. It's a concept in which MnDOT takes a project from design to completion in an uninterrupted flow.

"We've got MnDOT's attention, that's for sure," Ruth said, in concurring with Kuisle.

The committee, headed by Owatonna Mayor Peter Connor, then wrestled with ways in maintaining the push for more funding.

"We don't want to lose our focus of the last four years now," Connor said. A suggested survey of lawmakers and prospective candidates for the Legislature and Congress about their support for partnership goals eventually died for lack of support.

"I'd much rather sit down with someone and discuss the issues," Ruth said. Kuisle suggested that while recipients may try to answer surveys honestly, a lot changes when asked to vote upon specific proposals "so the answers end up meaningless."

Albrecht agreed with the lawmakers on the "one-on-one" approach, but he said, looking at Elmer, "we need talking points."

The committee also discussed how best to spread the word through the media and by other means.

"While I'm not a big fan of billboards," Connor said, "I'm a firm believer that if you've got them, use them."

Albrecht said there's only one big problem with them; "they're expensive."

Having several local governmental members in arrears on dues to the tune of $8,000, Connor said he was working on trying to collect that money so it could be used to help fund an advertising campaign.