Catching up on news from last week, Governor Terry Branstad has withdrawn Iowa’s membership in the leading advocacy group for passenger rail connecting the Midwest.  

The Midwest Regional Rail Initiative is geared toward improving passenger rail networks in nine states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio and Wisconsin.  For many years governors of both parties supported this goal. The Iowa Department of Transportation has been part of the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative since 1996, during Branstad’s fourth term as governor.

Unfortunately, passenger rail has become a partisan issue more recently. Although many Iowa business organizations support passenger rail, Republican politicians have dismissed its potential benefits to users, the economy and the environment. Perhaps Democratic Governor Chet Culver’s strong support for rail entrenched GOP opposition to the plans, but this isn’t just an Iowa phenomenon. Late last year, newly-elected Republican governors in Wisconsin and Ohio rejected federal funding for high-speed rail.

Branstad didn’t go that far, but his draft budget eliminated the state funding needed to match federal grants for passenger rail in Iowa. He also didn’t get involved when Iowa Senate Democrats tried to persuade House Republicans to preserve some passenger rail funding in the transportation budget.

In late June, the Iowa House and Senate cut most rail funding from the current-year transportation budget but left the door open for future appropriations. Iowa’s membership fee in the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission was among the items cut from the state budget for fiscal year 2012. Emily Schettler picked up the story for the Iowa City Press-Citizen:

In an effort to maintain Iowa’s involvement, the city of Iowa City, Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce, Metropolitan Planning Organization of Johnson County, Quad Cities Chamber and Greater Des Moines Partnership all agreed to provide funding to cover the $15,000 membership fee.

However, when they presented the funding to the governor, he declined to renew the membership, John Yapp, executive director of the MPOJC, formerly known as the Johnson County Council of Governments, told board members Wednesday night [August 17]. […]

On Thursday [August 18], Branstad spokesman Tim Albrecht said the Legislature “made their will crystal clear” about not financing a membership to the coalition.

“They control the purse strings in state government, and this is an austere budget time,” Albrecht said. “There aren’t extra resources that can simply be thrown around.”

When asked about using the alternative funding for the membership, Albrecht said the governor was carrying out the Legislature’s wishes by not renewing the membership.

“We followed the Legislature’s lead on this,” Albrecht said. “They spoke loud and clear that it was not something they were going to support.”

Again, Branstad feels bound by legislative intent when he happens to agree with the legislators’ decision. When lawmakers fund things he doesn’t care about, it’s a different story.

Withdrawing from an interstate advocacy group doesn’t ruin prospects for keeping last year’s federal grant to extend Amtrak to Iowa City, but it sends the wrong signal to the U.S. Department of Transportation. What’s the downside to accepting money from local governments and business groups to keep Iowa in the game?

If Iowa loses federal funding for the Iowa City link, there is virtually no chance for a future line running from Chicago to Omaha/Council Bluffs via Des Moines. Austerity politics have already led to significant cuts in current-year federal funding for passenger rail. Most domestic discretionary spending will be squeezed during the next few years.