Post in Funding the "Done Deal"

Mar 27 17:55 UTC

The Metropolitan Council’s Central Corridor Project Office is spending a couple
$million/month applying for a Federal Transit Administration matching grant.
The $2
million/month grant application process is called Preliminary Engineering.

In order to get the more than $450 million matching grant, the State and
Hennepin and
Ramsey Counties need to come up with the other more than $450 million.  So far
(as of 2-
20-08 SEE LINK TO ATTACHED FILES BELOW), the State has committed about $13
million;
Ramsey County about $17 million; and Hennepin County about $7 million.
Currently, the
local funding commitment, which needs to reach more than $450 million by Aug.
2009, is
only about $37 million.

The Central Corridor Project is more than $400 million short of a done deal.
If Pawlenty
pulls the plug and removes $70 million for the Project from this year's bonding
bill, the
deal could be kaput.  On the other hand, if Peter Bell and the Republican Met.
Council
continue getting DFL-sponsored Congressional earmarks and County taxes, I
suspect Bell
and the Met. Council will continue shuffling the money into the pockets of
their friends in
the Central Corridor Project Office.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SAPark/files/Central%20Corridor%20Cash%20Flow/