On March 24th, 2017 Rep. Jason Lewis (MN-CD2) sent a letter to US Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao asking her to deny the full funding agreement to the Twin Cities' Southwest Light Rail line. 

Lewis references the Minnesota Legislature's excellent letter from March 17th, which delineates the many reasons why this funding should be denied. 

This is part of Lewis' developing efforts to reel in the out-of-control and unaccountable Met Council, which is our local "regional authority" that is doing its best to plan every aspect of your life, like it or not.

It's great to have a strong voice for local control in Washington. Let Rep. Lewis and your Minnesota legislators know that you support these efforts to...

Stop the Train!

On March 17th, 2017 the Minnesota State GOP caucuses in the House and Senate sent a 14 page letter to US Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao asking her to deny the full funding agreement to the infamous Southwest Light Rail line here in the Twin Cities.

It undoubtedly comes as a surprise to many people that the unaccountable Met Council, which plans and operates the transit system,  has been barreling along spending tens of millions of dollars on SWLRT without any certainty as to how the rail line's capital expenses would be funded, much less ongoing operating costs. But that's in fact the case, as the Federal Government has yet to approve $895 million in capital funds of the line.

The excellent letter from GOP legislators points out that the Met Council has circumvented the legislature in order to get the rail line project this far, violated its commitment to not use the obscure funding mechanism known as Certificates of Participation,  and it appears that the Met Council is in violation of US code that prevents the cannibalization of bus service in order to fund new light rail. 

The business case case against SWLRT is even more stark, as the Met Council's own projections show that they expect to generate only 6,500 new-to-transit riders per day as a result of the nearly $2 billion in capital spending!

Southwest Light Rail is a boondoggle project crafted by a self-perpetuating bureaucracy, led by the only board in the country that is completely filled by patronage positions.  

Let you legislators know that you support their efforts to bring fiscal sanity to transportation and transit planning in Minnesota.

Stop The Train!

On March 1st, in response to constituent requests, Rep. Jason Lewis of the 2nd Congressional District put forth a resolution to use the Congressional Review Act to reject the December 2016 Obama rule expanding the geography of planning organizations like our infamous Met Council. Rejecting this rule would prevent any future agency from issuing a substantially similar rule without Congressional legislation.

Most immediately this would this do away with the Met Council's power grab into Sherburne and Wright counties in the Twin Cities area, which was "oh by the way" announced by the Met Council at a Minnesota House committee hearing in late January.

Long term this resolution would be a major blow against the administrative state. Specifically, the Obama rule's intent is to create homogenous "planning" districts that sprawl across state lines, and obliterate local and state rights.

Passing Rep. Lewis' resolution would be a much needed, and long awaited blow against the Met Council, and the Left's plan to centralize our local and diverse communities.

You can learn more about the December Obama rule by viewing my presentation here.