Bil Napoli: Time to go to bat for DM&E
In today's Rapid City Journal, Bill Napoli is taking up the crusade for the DM&E Railroad's expansion and the hundreds, if not thousands of jobs it's going to bring to Western South Dakota, saying we need to organize as we did for the Ellsworth Air Force Base:
Have we as a state been doing enough? We have the Governor and the State's entire congressional delegation who all seem to be on board and very supportive of the project.
Or do we need to crank things up further and campaign for it as we did Ellsworth?
State Sen. Bill Napoli, a Republican who represents parts of Rapid City and Rapid Valley, said that the $6 billion railroad expansion would create 5,000 jobs during construction and 1,200 permanent jobs.Read it all here.
"The mine is a wonderful thing, but these are my kind of people," Napoli said. "These are blue-collar jobs."
The expansion would allow DM&E to carry coal from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming across South Dakota to power plants in eastern states.
Napoli said he will ask fellow legislators to create a "blue-ribbon" task force to find ways that the state can help the railroad. It would be similar to the Ellsworth Task Force that helped save the air base from closing.
The DM&E project, however, is more controversial than Ellsworth or Homestake, partly because the railroad, a private company, is asking for a $2.3 billion federal loan to help finance building 280 miles of track and upgrading 600 more miles.
and..
Napoli said the railroad expansion would provide jobs and opportunities for spin-off companies. "DM&E will have a huge impact for many years," he said. "But at the state level, we appear to be doing nothing. There's not the same drive behind it as there has been for the mine."
Gov. Mike Rounds disagreed. He said his administration had been lobbying the federal government in support of the proposal for three years, urging approval of the $2.3 billion loan. "We've spoken with the OMB, and we've spoken directly with the secretary of transportation," Rounds said, urging approval of the federal loan.
Have we as a state been doing enough? We have the Governor and the State's entire congressional delegation who all seem to be on board and very supportive of the project.
Or do we need to crank things up further and campaign for it as we did Ellsworth?
Comments
Of course!
Governor Rounds has everything under control and is working well with our other political leaders.
Just keep everyone else out of it OK!
Do we really need more corporate welfare for a project that hasn't yet proved it can cash flow on its own?
We're already seeing the Social Moderates leave the GOP - I'd hate to see the Fiscal Conservatives lose their voice as well.
I think his estimates of how many permanent jobs this will attract and the amount of economic devopment this will mean to South Dakota are HIGHLY exaggerated.
And to put that much faith and tax payer money into a struggling railroad which can't even pay back its previous loan is just irresponsible.
The only way I would support the DM&E project is if they use some of the loan money they may or may not get to help Pierre, Brookings and other communities that would be drastically affected by this, to mitigate the problems that many trains through town would cause.
So far I have not seen any proof that the benefits of the DM&E project would outweight the negatives.
Honestly, who is he working for?
If that many leaders say it's excellent for our State then it is!
I don't have time to study this in depth so I am going to take their word for it! You just have to decide who you are going to trust and I trust them!
I guess you would say Senator Thune is working for US! I would expect nothing less.
Seems likes that would be the fair thing to do.
While DME may be a shaky railroad and Kevin Schieffer a fraud, you can never underestimate the importance of modernized transportation infrastructure.
The pollution this will cause outweighs any benefit to the state. The 1200 jobs figure is exaggerated.
If we want to encourage rail expansion in the state or ask for federal dollars let's ask for an Amtrak line to connect eastern South Dakota to Fargo and Omaha. At least that provides a benefit to the people who live here.
Once again, he's opening his mouth to please his district and ignoring reality.
I recall him spouting off after Ellsworth was saved that all the money that was spent was a waste. Oh yeah, I forgot that since DM&E helped "his kind of people" it's ok to spend taxpayer dollars.
Let's just hope legal manuevering and die-hard support from our delegation gets us the rail and quit squandering money on task forces and state money.
Napoli is such a hypocrit when it benefits "his people"
Anytime Napoli is supports something, it usually goes down in flames.
And for you Napoli fans, he not only sad that it was a waste of tax payer money supporting Ellsworth, he also said the worst vote he every made was to support funding for the underground lab.
This year he is supporting the taking of private property without
due process....
I think he should set with Kloucek and Sutton on the floor.
Scheifer is greasier than Napoli.
You're pretty pathetic, if you ask me.
Thune is doing a great thing for SD. Not just banking on a hole in the ground that may or may not pay off in 20 years. Or whenever the contaminated water gets pumped out.