Federal funding could move up timetable on state projects

By Mark Fischenich

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Congressman Tim Walz are strong supporters of an economic stimulus package focused on improving infrastructure — saying it will bring immediate job creation and a much-needed upgrade of the nation’s aging bridges, roads, rail lines, schools and other physical facilities.

“I just think this is a really smart way to get the country moving again,” said Klobuchar, a first-term Democrat.

Walz, DFL-Mankato, said the idea is also more likely to generate public support compared to previous stimulus plans aimed at finance services companies, other Wall Street firms and the automobile industry.

“‘It’s going to be spent putting my neighbors back to work, repaving streets in my neighborhood,’” Walz said, summarizing how he expects people to react. “They can understand that.”

Which is more than can be said of the complex financial bailouts that directed hundreds of billions of dollars toward banks and financial services firms — often with questionable levels of accountability, he said.

Walz and Klobuchar said they’re hopeful that even small projects like city street resurfacing will benefit from the plan, which they expect to be a top priority in the first days of the new Obama administration.

Klobuchar compares the idea to FDR’s Depression-era Works Progress Administration, which attempted to deal with unemployment by financing jobs that ranged from construction work for laborers to murals painted by out-of-work artists.

“This economic stimulus package could be everything from street resurfacing to building major light-rail projects,” she said.

The one limiting factor on major projects is expected to be their readiness to begin construction this year — because the stimulus package will probably aim to get people working fast. That would eliminate some long-sought and expensive local projects such as the pair of interchanges on Highway 14 on the east and west ends of Mankato-North Mankato and repairs needed at the Rapidan Dam.

But state Rep. Terry Morrow, a member of the House Transportation Committee, said even those sorts of projects will benefit indirectly from a large infrastructure funding plan. The theory is that state and local funds can be set aside for those projects sooner because less local revenue will be needed to complete the repair work being picked up by the feds.

Morrow said one estimate was that Minnesota might get $208 million for transportation projects out of a federal bill.

“Let’s say that none of that (federal money) goes to Highway 14,” he said. “The fact that Minnesota gets $208 million of projects off the books, other projects will move up the list.”