Governor deal: other cities: $80 million, Mankato $0

By Joe Spear
Free Press Editor

Gov. Tim Pawlenty issued a letter Tuesday to House and Senate leaders saying their bonding proposal of $1 billion is too steep, and includes projects that do not have "statewide impact."

"The bills are also filled with local projects that fail to fulfill core statewide functions."

"Examples include: Chatfield Arts and Community Center; Arrowhead Amateur Sports Complex; Various civic centers; Theodore Wirth Winter Recreation Area."

Sounds to me like he is saying he doesn't think much of Mankato's $14 million request to upgrade the civic center and All Seasons Arena.

This should be particularly galling to Mankato supporters considering the bonding he did approve in 2008 that included:

$20 million for a Bemidji regional event center
$10 million for a Crookston ice arena.
$38 million for the Duluth Events and Entertainment Center upgrade, the so called "DECC"
$2 million for the St. Cloud Convention Center.
$6.5 million for the St. Cloud National Hockey Center.
$3.5 milion for the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester.

Mankato had requested around $975,000 for planning money for a women's hockey center at the time, but it was rejected. Pawlenty used his line item veto to kill the funding.

If you're keeping score, this would be $80 million for Bemidji, Crookston, Duluth, Rochester and St. Cloud and $0.00 for Mankato.

I'd say we got "DECC-ed" that year. This year doesn't look much better with yesterday's announcement. Would that mean we got "double-DECCed"?