Light rail transit is coming to Minnesota. The construction aspects of the Hiawatha LRT is over the hump. The rail cars are on order. One even visited Minneapolis last year.
The newest struggle for the LRT is determining who must subsidize its annual operations. The Star Tribune had a good pice on this issue in today’s paper. 
When the State sought federal financial assistance to build the Hiawatha LRT, it pledged to provide sufficient funds each year to operate the LRT. The State officials making this request knew that LRT would require subsidy in order to operate from year to year. There was never any expectation that LRT would generate sufficient annual revenues to support its own expenses. The feds accepted the state’s commitment. The feds gave the state the money to assist with the construction of the LRT. The rest, as they say, is history.
Enter Governor Pawlenty. 
When the Pawlenty administration began to confront the size of the projected state budget deficit, it quickly jumped on the project LRT subsidy. As House Majoriy Leader, Gov. Pawlenty was no fan of the LRT project. He did not support it and did not see it accomplishing much in the line of traffic congestion relief. And he was right. This LRT line will be a nice thing, but it is not being built in a location that will reduce traffic congestion. It is not likely to dispalce one car from 35W or 494. Maybe Highway 77, but not likely.
In order to save state budget dollars, the Governor proposed to have Hennepin County, Minneapolis, and Bloomington subsidize the LRT. I believe that Bloomington has successfully excised itself out of the current proposal, but Minneapolis and Hennepin County are still in the mix, as I understand it.
If you’re an Eden Prairie taxpayer, you will help to subsidize the LRT, unless the current proposal is changed. The County generates its funds by taxing all properties in Hennepin County – including us. We are continuing to monitor this proposal, and oppose it wherever possible.
The State should keep its original commitment to fund the annual operating costs of LRT.
