Transportation

meeting draws

legislative candidates

By FRITZ BUSCH

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- "Highway 14 is a killer highway," District 23A DFL candidate Ruth Johnson of St. Peter said Wednesday at a regional transportation meeting at the Holiday Inn.

The meeting was attended by area Minnesota legislative candidates, highway contractors, engineers and other agri-business leaders.

Since 1984, 127 people have died in 111 accidents on U.S. Highway 14. Since 2000, 21 people have died in 16 fatal crashes, 10 of which happened on the two-lane portion of the highway, the Minnesota Transportation Alliance (MTA) said.

Traffic accidents are the leading cause of accidental death in Minnesota. Of the 600 fatalities that occur each year, 77 percent are on two-lane roads, while only 14 percent are on four-lane roads.

Major employers like Mayo Medical Center, IBM Corp., Kraft, Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing and Associated Milk Producers Inc., depend on Highway 14 to move people and products, according to the Highway 14 Partnership.

Minnesota Department of Transportation funding will decrease markedly after 2006 while highway and transit needs continue to grow, according to the MTA.

Examples included the I-494 and U.S. 169 interchange project delay in Bloomington that is costing millions of dollars more each year it isn't completed, according to Jim Wafler of the Highway Construction Industry Council.

Minnesota is 20 years behind in meeting its transportation needs, according to the Transportation Alliance. State funding has not kept pace with local and federal money.

Funding options include dedicating a Moving Vehicle Sales Tax (MVST) to transportation, increasing and indexing the state gas tax, increasing license tab fees, adding a motor fuel sales tax, levying a metro area or statewide sales tax, wheel tax and/or street utility fee, tolls and FAST lanes, and issuing bonds.

About 54 percent of MVST revenue goes to highways and transit. Candidates agreed the need to boost the percentage and other funding options to support rural highway improvements.

They further agreed that economic activity is dependent on the efficient movement of people and goods and that Minnesota's transportation system directed impacts safety, economic development and quality of life. None of them said they would sign a no-new-tax pledge.

Redwood County Commission Chairman Gene Short said getting politicians to vote with their own mind was badly needed.

Johnson, who faces incumbent Republican Howard Swenson of Nicollet, said she would support rural and metro transit plans so that senior citizens can live at home longer. She added that during her previous legislative term, she helped author a bill to improve the Old Fort Road, near the Minnesota River.

"I'm concerned about what has happened in Minnesota the last four years," Johnson said. "Most tax cuts hurt rural Minnesota much more than the metro area."

Swenson said he promoted bonding bills for state and local roads only to see the bonding bill fail to pass this year.

Incumbent Republican District 21B Rep. Brad Finstad of New Ulm, said Highway 14 doesn't stop at New Ulm and added that he worked to create 10-ton roads in the area. A Godahl area native, he talked about using common sense and hard work that he learned growing up on the farm.

"Some legislators check in their common sense at the door," Finstad said. "I work with people to develop good relationships."

His opponent, Democrat Joe Eckstein, a New Ulm native, who returned here from the Twin Cities with his wife, Mary (Windschitl), said he moved home for a better lifestyle.

"We need changes from people to represent our district," Eckstein said.

Following the meeting, participants toured New Ulm Quartzite Quarries Inc. on a bus and rode restored antique rail cars owned by Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad from New Ulm to Cambria and back.

(Fritz Busch can be reached at fbusch@nujournal.com).