Pork flies: Bill makes state pay for same land twice
As originally printed in the Minnesota Monitor Thu May 01, 2008 at 9:45:09 AM
by: Chris Steller
At the Minnesota Capitol, pigs -- or at least pork -- do fly. Some pork, like the proposed state subsidy for a new parking ramp at the Mall of America, flaps its wings loudly above bipartisan cheers. Other pork flies by more quietly, below the radar - like a bill legislators from both parties sent to the governor yesterday that would make the state pay for the same Minneapolis parkland twice.
This is a story of that other, quieter white meat - more thinly sliced than the fat slabs the mall gets, to be sure, but just as tasty. It starts with the new I-35W bridge across the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, which will be wider than the one that fell down last year. Federal rules say the state must own all the land under the new bridge, so the Minnesota Department of Transportation has been buying up parcels of land, 13 in all, that will lie in the new bridge's bigger shadow. The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board owned one of those parcels, about two acres in size, on the west bank of the river and to the downstream side of the bridge. The State of Minnesota first paid for the park board to acquire that land in the 1980s as part of the state's funding for the extension of West River Parkway that carries the country's Great River Road through the heart of Minneapolis and under I-35W.
But now, to comply with federal rules that apply to the new bridge, the state needs the land back from the park board. According to Minnesota law, whenever land purchased using state-issued bonds changes hands and changes use, the cash proceeds from the land transfer go back to the state. In this case, a state agency (MnDOT) was the buyer (through condemnation because of land title complications), so the $744,000 MnDOT paid this year for the parcel and for a road easement on an adjacent parcel must be returned to the state's general fund.
That's what state law says -- unless the state Legislature grants a special exception. And the House of Representative passed just such an exception unanimously on Monday, after the Senate approved it two weeks ago by a vote of 52-10.
Got that? The state first bought the land for the park board and now will re-gift the value of the land to the park board and will restore the park board's use of the land for a parkway. The bill now awaits Gov. Tim Pawlenty's signature; despite his fondness for vetoing funds with urban destinations, the unanimous vote in the House (along with assurances that the money will go to buy other riverfront land) will likely keep his veto pen in check. Come December, freeway traffic will travel across an I-35W bridge, as before; bikes, cars and pedestrians will travel beneath the new bridge along West River Parkway, as before; but the state will have spent $744,000 on land it already paid for, once before.