The clock is ticking on the 2012 Minnesota Legislative session, and it’s down to the big issues of bonding, Vikings, and business taxes.

After weeks of debate and months of work, the Senate voted 74-22 to pass a two-year transportation bill today—a big step in the right direction.

The planned 15-mile Southwest Light Rail Line—expected to open in 2017—will include 18 stations between downtown Minneapolis and Eden Prairie, including stops in St. Louis Park, Hopkins, and Minnetonka. The project is next in line for development in the growing Twin Cities system of light rail and bus rapid transit lines. But to stay on track, the line needs state bonding this year.

A new poll commissioned by three area Chambers of Commerce shows that 61 percent of Minnesotans support funding the Southwest Light Rail with $25 million in bonding this year.

You may know about the flurry of action surrounding a new federal transportation bill that has consumed Washington over the last month. You may not know that this sudden urgency erupted 869 days after the current federal transportation bill officially expired.

Please call or email your U.S. representative TODAY to oppose the federal transportation bill currently moving in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Fresh Energy applauds Minnesota Congressman Erik Paulsen for voting against the bad federal transportation bill as it moved through the House Ways and Means Committee this morning.

It’s fitting that the cover of the “American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act” includes pictures of a congested freeway and an oil pipeline, because the bill’s intent seems pretty clear: retaining Americans’ dependence on cars and preserving huge giveaways to the oil industry.

Minnesota’s Southwest Light Rail Transit line—planned to connect downtown Minneapolis with Eden Prairie and expected to carry 30,000 riders a day by 2030—just got an important $775 million boost from Governor Mark Dayton’s proposed bonding bill.

How does Minnesota’s most-talked-about transportation project—the proposed St. Croix River Crossing bridge near Stillwater—stack up when compared to Mn/DOT’s new vision?