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Minnesota House of Representatives

State Representative Denny McNamara

359 State Office BuildingState Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-3135

For more information contact: Jason Wenisch 651-296-2317

Posted: 2008-02-18 00:00:00
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NEWS COLUMN

NEWS AND VIEWS FROM REP. DENNY McNAMARA

Hi everybody,

We’ve wrapped up Week 1 of the 2008 Legislative Session, a week that was highlighted by the Governor’s State of the State Address, the Legislature’s approval of the dedicated funding amendment and the beginning of moving the Transportation Bill through committees.

The Governor made one critical point in his St. Cloud address on Tuesday: Lawmakers have the opportunity to accomplish a lot this session including passing a Transportation Bill in a bipartisan manner. In regards to transportation I am working to find a compromise between 6 tax increases on the one side and Gov Pawlenty's willingness to consider a gas tax increase. I continue to be troubled by the "6 different tax increase proposal", especially the inclusion of a 1/2% increase in our Sales Tax without voter approval. We should not need to increase 6 taxes for transportation to get our Hastings bridge replaced. We can prioritize better than that!

With our current recession and a projected $373 million state budget deficit (a number that’s likely to grow when we hear the updated economic forecast at the end of February), we need taxpayers to keep as much of their own money as possible for their family's budget.

Two items about the Hastings Bridge.

1) MnDOT recently lowered the Hastings Bridge sufficiency rating to a 38.1 rating. It was a recent recalculation per the last inspection by an outside consultant and is a downgrade from the previous rating of 49.1. The current rating is due to section loss in non-critical areas. Please call or email me if you have questions.

2) MnDOT has scheduled two public open houses to outline plans to paint and repair the Highway 61 Mississippi River bridge at Hastings this spring/summer. This work is scheduled to begin sometime in April and will require approximately three months of alternating single lane traffic across the bridge beginning in early May.

Residents and business owners interested in the project are invited to attend an open house from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 27 at Hastings City Hall, 101 4th Street East in Hastings. A second meeting for Pierce County, Wisconsin and the city of Prescott is scheduled from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 5 at Prescott City Hall, 800 Borner Street in Prescott, Wis.

Layouts and graphics illustrating traffic, access impacts during construction, alternate routes and other area construction projects will be available. Representatives from the Minnesota Department of Transportation, along with the cities of Hastings and Prescott will be in attendance to answer questions.

Individuals with a disability, who need reasonable accommodations to participate should contact Kent Barnard at 651/234-7504. Hearing or speech-impaired persons should contact the Minnesota Relay Service at 1-800-627-3529.

On another note, I am in the process of finishing my session survey and will mail that to you in the coming weeks. I’m also looking at holding my town meetings in mid March, so I’ll be sure to keep you updated on dates and times when we have things finalized.

Keep in touch,

Denny

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