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With an insider’s eye, Hot Dish tracks the tastiest bits of Minnesota’s political scene and keep you up-to-date on those elected to serve you.

Contributors in Minnesota: Jennifer Brooks, Baird Helgeson, Patricia Lopez, Jim Ragsdale, Rachel E. Stassen-Berger and Glen Stubbe. Contributors in D.C.: Kevin Diaz and Corey Mitchell.

Posts about 4th District

St. Croix bridge bill: Uniting Packers and Vikings?

Posted by: Kevin Diaz Updated: February 29, 2012 - 7:13 PM

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In the end, the St. Croix bridge debate in the U.S. House Wednesday night played out to a largely empty chamber – an indication of the lateness of the hour, or that minds are already made up.
 
On the eve of Thursday’s full House vote, about 10 representatives, mostly from Wisconsin and Minnesota, traded views about whether the long-delayed $690 million project represents a wasteful “earmark” or a needed upgrade to an outdated river crossing in Stillwater.
 
Most intriguingly, the 40-minute encounter featured a head-to-head encounter between bridge backer Rep. Michele Bachmann, one of the most conservative Republicans in the House, and her Minnesota nemesis, Rep. Betty McCollum, one of the chamber’s most liberal Democrats.
 
It got a little personal.
 
“What would the Tea Party call an effective and efficient use of taxpayer dollars?” McCollum said by way of reminding listeners of Bachmann’s core political base. “Would they call this that?”
 
Bachmann, for her part, all but accused McCollum of trying to sabotage the project by insisting on a scaled-back version, something state officials say would take the decades-long process back to square one.
 
“I’d like to have the record to reflect very clearly that if Representative McCollum gets her way she will kill building the bridge over the St. Croix River,” Bachmann said.
 
The line of the night, though, went to Wisconsin Republican Sean Duffy, extolling the bipartisan support the bridge has received on both sides of the river: “You have Vikings and Packers supporting this bill!”
 

McCollum says St. Croix bridge could raise taxes

Posted by: Kevin Diaz Updated: February 29, 2012 - 6:12 PM

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With the U.S. House opening debate Wednesday evening on the St. Croix River crossing, Minnesota Democrat Betty McCollum made a stab at the sweet spot of the Republican backers of the proposed bridge:

 

It could raise taxes.
 
As an outspoken opponent of a project that enjoys broad bipartisan support among Minnesota and Wisconsin elected officials, McCollum fired off a “dear colleague” letter this afternoon noting the objections of the Oak Park Heights City Council, which recently passed a resolution expressing concerns about a possible $443 annual property tax increase for city homeowners and businesses to cover utility improvements connected to the bridge.
 
“What you may not know,” McCollum wrote, “is that S. 1134’s federal mandate to build a $700 million ‘extradosed’ mega-bridge will raise property taxes on Oak Park Heights, MN families and businesses – $443 per year for the next 10 years!”
 
Bridge backers dismiss the city’s concern, but the issue has yet to be resolved to Oak Park Heights’ satisfaction.
 
The Senate passed legislation last month granting the project an exemption from the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. The House, where Minnesota Republican Michele Bachmann has carried the project, is scheduled to vote on Thursday.

Bachmann: Bridge vote 'like Moses parting the waters'

Posted by: Kevin Diaz Updated: February 28, 2012 - 12:12 PM

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After decades of legal wrangling and legislative maneuvering, the fate of the controversial St. Croix River crossing comes down to a final vote Wednesday in the U.S. House.
 
Feeling the pressure after months of delay, Minnesota Republican Michele Bachmann expressed tentative relief Tuesday on the eve of the climactic vote that could grant the project a needed exemption from the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.
 
“It really is like Moses parting the waters to be able to get this done,” Bachmann said.
 
With just 24-hours to go, both sides in the dispute went into full court press. Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton, who favors the $690 million bridge, fired off letters Tuesday to House Speaker John Boehner and Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi.
 
Dayton, who set a March 15 deadline for congressional approval of the project, said that further delay “would likely be its death knell.”
 
The Senate passed a bridge bill last month at the behest of Minnesota Democrat Amy Klobuchar. Meanwhile, Minnesota Democrat Betty McCollum, who has been leading an effort in the House to defeat the bridge legislation, sent off a letter to congressional colleagues calling the project bad environmental policy and “fiscally irresponsible.”

St. Croix bridge faces critical vote in Congress

Posted by: Kevin Diaz Updated: February 27, 2012 - 10:48 PM

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With seven legislative days remaining before Gov. Mark Dayton’s March 15 deadline, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann is pressing for a House vote Wednesday approving the long-debated St. Croix River crossing.
 
The vote will be a major test for the proposed $690 million bridge, because under rules allowing expedited consideration it would have to pass by a two-thirds majority, a result that is less than certain given opposition from both environmentalists and fiscal hawks.
 
The measure passed the Senate by unanimous consent Jan. 23 after a month of determined behind-the-scenes arm twisting by Minnesota Democrat Amy Klobuchar. But it’s been a different story for Bachmann and her Republican colleagues in the House, whose leaders have shown a decided ambivalence toward the project.
 
Spokesmen for House Speaker John Boehner and Transportation Committee Chairman John Mica have said nothing publicly about the bridge legislation, which has languished for months.
 
With little prospect of getting a bill through the Transportation Committee before Dayton’s deadline, Bachmann is apparently willing to roll the dice in a floor vote on a suspension calendar requiring a supermajority.
 
Even as Bachmann was announcing the vote Monday, Taxpayers for Common Sense, an anti-pork watchdog group, fired off a letter the Transportation Committee members terming it “a bridge too far.”
 
Said Bachmann: “For over a decade, I have worked on the St. Croix River Crossing Project – first as a State Senator in the Minnesota legislature and now a Member of Congress…My constituents are eager for a new crossing to be built. This project has gone unfinished for far too long.”
 
The bill would grant the bridge an exemption from the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, a move that some environmentalists see as a costly and unfortunate breach of a landmark environmental protection.
 
Dayton, who has pushed for the project, has informed Congress that federal funding for the bridge could be reprogrammed to other state transportation needs if Congress doesn’t accede by the Ides of March.
 

Dayton admonishes McCollum on St. Croix bridge

Posted by: Kevin Diaz Updated: February 24, 2012 - 5:20 PM

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Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton, who has set a March 15 deadline for congressional action on the proposed St. Croix River crossing, followed up with a letter to U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum, an opponent of the $690 million project, saying there is no time to change the bridge’s design.

 

Dayton cited a public statement by McCollum suggesting it was time to reach a "compromise" on the size of the bridge, which his fellow Democrat would like to scale back.  
 
In a letter dated Thursday, Dayton said time is running out on the funding for the bridge and that a redesign is not an option. It’s either “proceed with the bridge as currently proposed,” he said, or “go back to the drawing boards.”

(Update: McCollum's chief of staff, Bill Harper, points out that any new bridge over the St. Croix, unless it fits into the footprint of the old one, would need a congressional exemption from the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, whether that occurs before or after the deadline set by Dayton).

McCollum Betty Still Water Bridge

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