Amid the political rancor in St. Paul, there sits a bill of keen interest to the Greater Mankato area. The city of Mankato is asking the state for $14.5 million in bonding appropriation to expand the event center at Verizon Wireless Center and improve the arena to accommodate Minnesota State University hockey.

It makes sense economically, strategically and, frankly given the repeated dips into the state coffers from other communities while Mankato has repeatedly been shunned, it’s an equity issue.

The center was built in 1994 as a regional event center and to house MSU hockey, which had risen to Division I as a member of the WCHA. Since that time, the center has requested state assistance on expansion two other times and has been rejected.

Let’s be clear. This expansion and improvement allow for greater accommodation to men’s and women’s hockey at MSU as well as the opportunity to bring in more outside dollars from trade shows and conventions to be spent in the Mankato region.

Will it be the center for big act concerts and a venue for large performing arts as was originally hoped? Probably not. Times have changed and today’s promoters are looking for larger venues and greater opportunities to command premium ticket prices.

And the planned multi-use auditorium will be more conducive to trade shows and conventions than a permanent home for regional arts like the symphony or community theater. And the fees likely to be sought by the center may be out of the reach of such nonprofits.

The improvements are needed to provide an opportunity for more trade shows and conventions now being turned away because of scheduling conflicts or size of the facility.

But we’re not looking at the center as something that has to pay for itself. Civic centers throw off activity for other businesses to capitalize upon. The private investments made in the past have helped keep the downtown economically healthy. Since the civic center was built, the assessed valuation of the area surrounding it has risen 120 percent, according to Greater Mankato Growth. That’s more tax revenue into the city coffers for continued services its residents can enjoy.

In general, these trade shows, conventions and entertainment have drawn people from a wide region – including northern Iowa. That’s new money being circulated in the region improving sales tax revenues.

Since 1995, we have seen a resurgence of service and professional businesses relocating or expanding in the Civic Center area — including the recent renovation of I&S headquarters and the transfer of operations from Mayo Clinic Health System of Mankato to the Northwestern Office building. The owner of Mankato Place says its revitalization was keyed to the creation of the Civic Center Plaza and estimates that $5 million in gross sales occurs there annually. Before that, it sat vacant and virtual tumbleweeds were blowing downtown.

Another thought for lawmakers is the unique nature of this deal. It is a partnership between Minnesota State University, the city of Mankato and the state that should be a model for other governmental agencies on beneficial cooperation — something rarely seen in today’s political environs.

Unlike other such projects around the state that have seen a healthy share of state funding, the construction and all improvements to the Mankato civic center have been supported by local option sales tax, not state bonding. This time around, again there will be a local match but state bonding is critical to complete the scope of the project.

As one lawmaker told The Free Press Editorial Board recently, it’s not like the area asks for much while others — such as Rochester, St. Cloud and Duluth — seem to get more than their fair share. For the enormous amount of tax revenues the area sends to the Capitol, it’s not out of place to ask for some of it back as an investment in the community.

Such messages have been sent to the lawmakers repeatedly with broad support from many in the business community both in letters and personal visits to the Capitol, most recently with a Mankato Day visit to St. Paul last week.

Terry Besser, assistant professor and sociologist at the Iowa State University Extension to Communities, wrote that towns without healthy downtowns become towns where people “work, shop, socialize and seek entertainment elsewhere ... The whole community is affected by the nature of the downtown” and for that reason, the health of the downtown “should concern the whole community and not just the local business owners.”

And it should concern state lawmakers. This is a partnership that makes sense and deserves approval.