Capital Budget Includes $85-Mil Facility

Ventura emphasizes fixing up or upgrading existing facilities rather than building new ones.

St. Paul would get Ventura's second-largest project, an $85-million joint laboratory for the state health and agriculture departments near the intersection of University Avenue and Lafayette Road. Ventura says the new labs are needed to meet his top priority, "protecting the health and safety of Minnesota citizens and state employees."

The existing labs are undersized and unable to handle emerging public health risks. The state human services department, currently housed in eight locations around the metro area, would move into a new building at the intersection of Cedar and 11th streets -- the site of the demolished Capital Square building -- in Downtown St. Paul.

A private developer would build the structure and lease it to the state, and the state would agree to buy the building when the lease expires.

Ventura also backs the most expensive single project in the plan -- a $120-million commuter rail line in the North Star corridor from Downtown Minneapolis to St. Cloud. Ventura says the Northstar Corridor, which runs along an 80-mile stretch along highways 10 and 47, would reduce traffic congestion in that fast-growing region. Ventura says Northstar commuter rail is a "smart investment that will have a significant impact on relieving congestion for all Minnesotans as they travel...in and out of the Twin City metropolitan area."

He's seeking money now because $137 million in federal grants and $27 million in local commitments would match the state funds.

The University of Minnesota would get $86 million, or just more than one-third of the $232 million it requested for buildings, under his proposal. The Minnesota state colleges and universities would get $135 million, or more than half of their $251-million request. Most of the money for new buildings would be spent on science labs and technologyprojects.

Ventura rejected all of the projects requested by cities and counties, including the city of St. Paul's requests for money to replace the Roy Wilkins Auditorium, extend Phalen Boulevard and finish restoring the Como Park Conservatory. He also nixed the city of Minneapolis' request for subsidies for a new Guthrie Theater, a planetarium and the Shubert Performing Arts Center.

Although Minnesota faces a budget deficit just short of $2 billion, the state would pay for the improvements through borrowed money. Ventura would finance most of his construction program by borrowing $746 million.