Actually while the state has officially committed several million dollars to Elk Run, they are also intent on building the developer a $70 million interchange. As you know the proposed first building is on a dirt road between two small towns (hence the request from the state for $3+ million to create infrastructure). Funding for the interchange is supposed to come from a variety of sources, including (apparently) $20 million in DOT funds designed for outstate Minnesota road projects as well as other Federal, State, County and City sources.

So instead of the $20 million to build the UEL building, Elk Run will benefit from a $70 million interchange that wouldn’t even be necessary if the developer had purchased land near roads with suitable existing highway access. I’d much prefer that $70 million came as angel investor tax breaks or other incentives to promote entrepreneurship.

To your point of “selective memory”, the tens of millions our state is spending on the interchange is absent the fact that not a single business has been identified to require such a huge public subsidy, nor a single scientist employed or building built. Just the promise of a developer who, as you first reported, became interested in biobusiness only AFTER the state refused their first multi million dollar infrastructure requests. Selective memory indeed.