MANKATO — Tom Horner, the Independence Party’s endorsed candidate for governor, stopped in Mankato Friday to pitch his plan for priming the pump of Minnesota’s economy.

Horner’s proposal involves scouring the state’s budget — and borrowing money in some cases — to provide high-speed Internet service to all Minnesota cities, improving roads and transit, targeting funds to applied research at the University of Minnesota and investing in education.

It’s the type of plan that would be easier to implement if the state wasn’t in a prolonged revenue drought — including a projected $5.8 billion shortfall in the upcoming budget. But Horner said it’s even more vital to revitalize Minnesota communities now, because that’s what’s going to bring the economic growth to ease the state’s budget problems.

“We need to build a foundation of strong communities,” he said at a press conference at the Blue Earth County Library.

Priming a pump, at least the old-fashioned kind, takes a bit of water to get things started. Horner said he hasn’t calculated the overall amount of funding needed to get his revitalization plan started. But he has a few specifics.

He wants to boost funding for applied research, especially health and biological science research, at the U of M and other institutions by $17 million and make it a specific line item in the state budget.

“In a $32 billion state budget, we ought to be able to find $17 million to fund that kind of investment in the future,” said Horner, a former aide to Republican Sen. Dave Durenberger and the founder of a Twin Cities public affairs firm.

He proposes to provide a better-trained workforce in areas where businesses have the greatest need — to be done in conjunction with the state’s two-year colleges and funded through borrowing. He would attempt to repay the bonds by dedicating a portion of the incomes earned by the highly trained workers once they’re employed.

Horner wants the state to put a greater emphasis on transportation infrastructure, mentioning well-maintained highways, improved transit statewide and  passenger rail between cities in Minnesota. The only funding source he mentions is $100 million in bonding, but that’s aimed at local bridge repair and replacement.

He proposes setting a goal of ensuring that all the state’s businesses, schools, health care providers and citizens have access to high-speed broadband telecommunications, again through borrowing.

“We ought to be able to bond for it,” Horner said. “That’s good debt.”

The revitalization proposal has provisions that would, at least in the short term, reduce revenue to the already revenue-hungry state budget. There would be a sales tax exemption for capital equipment investments by businesses to encourage the purchase of new technology and the upgrading of facilities. Some of the lost tax revenue would be offset by eliminating a pair of economic development programs, including current Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s JOBZ initiative, which Horner calls “bureaucratic and arbitrary.”

Bold action is needed to get Minnesota’s lagging economy performing better and getting unemployed and underemployed Minnesotans back to work, according to Horner, predicting the benefits of the plan would show up in future state revenue forecasts.

“Then we have an economy that is strong at the foundation but also strong at the top,” he said.