Governor's wish list gets mixed response

A mix of elation and disappointment is emerging from the south metro after Gov. Tim Pawlenty announced his $1 billion list of recommended projects for the legislative session that begins next month.

The biggest winner may well be Inver Hills Community College, which got the governor's backing for its entire $13.2 million request for an addition that would include nine high-tech "smart classrooms" and 16 teaching labs.

The sharpest disapproval is coming from Scott County, which not only didn't get his help on a high-priority project but learned that the governor is supporting a controversial idea many neighbors oppose: a wall around the campus-like women's prison in Shakopee.

The governor's entire bonding list, which was released Monday, is just a starting point, bound to be altered as the session progresses. But it provides a baseline from which the legislative process begins.

Muted disappointment was the reaction of the director of the Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley. Located in the legislative district Pawlenty himself once represented, the zoo got $7.5 million to undertake basic maintenance such as fixing the skylights in the tropics building.

But that was only a quarter of what it sought.

Pawlenty recommended nothing to move forward with the broader makeover for the zoo that its director has long envisioned.

Elected leaders in Scott County were flat-out unhappy.

"The governor hasn't helped us out at all this past year," said Shakopee Mayor John Schmitt, referring to Pawlenty's recent decision to spurn the county's request for its own representative on the Metropolitan Council.

One of the top priorities for Schmitt and others was $3.2 million to complete a facility being built near Jordan to train police officers, firefighters and others. "This is about emergency management," Schmitt said, part of a statewide network the state has encouraged to upgrade the skills of first responders.

But the training facility was zeroed out while $550,000 was set aside to begin planning for the prison fence, a project that Schmitt and many neighbors strongly oppose.

Traffic and classrooms

The state money, needed to leverage a $133.3 million federal grant, would be used to create high-occupancy toll lanes in the southern half of I-35W, a new southbound lane extending to the Minnesota River and a northbound shoulder lane in south Minneapolis to ease rush hour traffic.

Still needed, Turner said, is a comprehensive transportation bill that includes an ongoing revenue source, similar to the bill that Pawlenty vetoed last year. "We can't continue to just bond for these projects because ultimately we're going to run out of money," he said.

The funding for new classrooms at Inver Hills, $8.8 million of which would be in bonds and $4.4 million financed through Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU), would help the Inver Grove Heights school handle a 45 percent enrollment increase in the past five years, spokesman Charlie Cheesebrough said.

"I think our project was really looked upon favorably because of our growth," he said. "We always come up with a [space-to-student] ratio that's pretty low compared to other campuses. It's a definite need."