By Nancy Huddleston, Correspondent
There are 58 mayors in John Kline’s congressional district, and all are likely familiar with his stance on earmarks.

In his opening remarks to 20 mayors who attended a June 1 “Mayors’ Meeting” at Burnsville City Hall, Kline repeated his stance, emphasizing that he believes the system of how Congress hands out money for projects is broken and that he’ll continue to abstain from making any requests for them.

Savage Mayor Janet Williams was in attendance and noted that some of the projects in Kline’s district have a wide impact in the metro area – specifically pointing to the 494/169 interchange in Eden Prairie and the Highway 13/County Road 5 interchange in Burnsville.

“We have coalitions to get a broad level of support, but we can only do so much,” she said.

Shakopee Mayor Jon Schmidt said when Kline chose to start the meeting by talking about earmarks, he “essentially took the issue out of discussion for the rest of the forum, with mayors knowing it would be “futile” to press the Congressman on it.

“I don’t think any of us necessarily agrees,” Schmitt said of Kline’s stance on earmarks.

Jordan Mayor Pete Ewals said he declined to attend the meeting and was not surprised that earmarks came up.

“That comes up in all conversations that we have with them,” he said of Kline’s congressional office.

Ewals agrees with Kline that earmarks should not be necessary for projects that have merit.

“You want the project to stand on its own merits. The highest priority projects should be done first,” he said.

Prior Lake Mayor Jack Haugen was out of town and couldn’t attend the meeting with Kline. In an interview last week, he said he also agrees with Kline that projects should stand on their own, but only if that philosophy is uniform throughout Congress.

“It’s difficult when we have a congressman who feels strongly that way,” Haugen said. “How often does it put us in a situation where other places take advantage of it and we lose because of it?

“I’m not opposed to the concept, but you can’t be an island and take such a strong position that you hurt your constituents,” Haugen concluded.

Kline said he understands the frustration but doesn’t like a system where he’s being forced to vote for a bloated transportation authorization bill to get money for the intersection of County Road 5 and Highway 13 that also includes funding for Alaska’s infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” project.

“Worthwhile initiatives should not be pitted against projects prioritized solely by seniority. That is why Congress needs to fix this broken system,” Kline has said in columns he’s written on the earmark issue.

So without the option of earmarks, how can cities get funding for much-needed projects?

Kline said he’s advising constituents to look at other options and work with his office to help secure funding for their projects through the U.S. Department of Transportation.

“We’re hosting training sessions throughout the district to help people learn how to apply for these grants,” he pointed out. “And at this meeting with the mayors, we found some already knew about these processes, but some did not. Some mayors were also able to share information with others.”

Kline said he put an invitation out to the 58 mayors in his district in an effort to get to know them and have them get to know each other.

Twenty mayors showed up for the first-time event, which the congressman thought was a good showing. He said each mayor was given a few minutes to talk and bring up issues of interest to their communities.

As they went around the table, the economy often came up, Kline said.
“Clearly the economy is in the tank and each community is experiencing job losses, especially with the recent news of car dealerships closing,” he said.

The talk about the economy gave the mayors a chance to see how others are dealing with it and gave Kline a chance to hear firsthand about the impacts to cities in his district.

He also had a chance to talk with mayors about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and what impact the stimulus bill is having on their communities.

Kline reported that Le Sueur Mayor Bob Oberle reported his city qualified for a bus but didn’t have a use for it.

That prompted Rosemount Mayor Bill Droste to raise a hand, saying he needed it and would take it off Oberle’s hands.

“We all got a nice chuckle about that,” Kline said, but noted seriously that he was “startled and taken aback” by the information.
“I reminded them that I voted against the stimulus package,” Kline said, because Congress was being asked to vote on adding $800 billion on top of the U.S. debt, which is now into the trillions.

“It was legislation that none of us had read, so I voted against it.
“That said, it is the law and I’ve told state legislators and mayors that we should make the most of it. If the money is coming, we might as well do what we can with it,” Kline said.

Mathias Baden, Lori Carlson and Shannon Fiecke contributed to this story.