Our view: Bachmann earns praise for listening on Northstar
St. Cloud Times Editorial Board
July 6, 2009
Kudos — yes, kudos — to 6th District Rep. Michele Bachmann for her finally embracing a common-sense approach to balancing constituents’ demands with her personal views.
Bachmann last week sat down with Sherburne and Stearns county commissioners to hear why they believe she should make an exception to her personal view of "no earmarks" and seek federal funds to expand the Northstar commuter rail line from Big Lake to St. Cloud.
This project enjoys plenty of local support, yet Bachmann’s personal vow to avoid earmarks has been a huge stumbling block in potentially accessing millions of new federal dollars being made available for projects like this nationwide.
A Times news report about the meeting Tuesday quoted Bachmann as saying she personally supports the idea but won’t seek an earmark unless the state Department of Transportation and the St. Cloud Area Planning Organization give it a priority ranking.
Well, the APO already has passed a measure seeking Federal Railroad Administration funding, and county leaders report MnDOT now considers the project eligible for federal funding. Couple that with Bachmann’s quotes and it looks like the expansion might finally have the broad local support it needs to compete for federal funds.
Of course, Bachmann runs some political risk if she agrees to earmark funds for the project. It would be her sixth earmark even though back in 2008 she pledged to avoid them and work to change congressional rules.
We repeat today the theme we struck then as debate raged about how to fund replacing the suddenly closed DeSoto Bridge:
We appreciate and encourage her to change the earmark process. Some significant steps have been made lately such as requiring more disclosure and better justifications of various requests. Certainly, though, more must be done.
In the meantime, an effective legislator will work within the rules to provide the best possible service to constituents.
For the Northstar expansion, that's what Sen. Amy Klobuchar is doing. It's what Norm Coleman did. And we sure hope it's what Al Franken will do.
It will be interesting to see if Michele Bachmann follows through, considering her well documented hysterical opposition to rail transit. |
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