Dayton Says No State Budget for High-Speed Rail
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DULUTH - Governor Mark Dayton had some bad news for supporters of the proposed high-speed rail lines.
He announced Thursday that state dollars will not be available anytime soon for the proposed high-speed rail project.
Local officials involved with the rail project hope the governor will remain open to the idea.
"If the governor was talking about today, I think he's right. But if he's looking down the road, two more years, situations can change, economic circumstances for sure change, hopefully for the better. And I think then he would have a different outlook on this rather than just here and now," said Ken Buehler, chair of the technical advisory committee to the Northern Lights Express.
Research and planning for the proposed Northern Lights Express, linking Duluth and the Twin Cities, has been in the works for several years now, so city officials said they remain hopeful.
"This news from the governor is not a huge surprise, not a huge shock. We know the state doesn't have the extra funding right now. We hope it will in the near future. There's been a lot of work done already, this isn't going to stop that," said Daniel Fanning, community relations officer for the City of Duluth.
However, Buehler is also worried that the lack of state funding can potentially affect federal funding towards the project.
"Some participation by the state of Minnesota, not only makes good economic sense for the state of Minnesota, but it's also part of the funding formula that the federal government looks at when they grant the big dollars," Buehler said.
