I thank business profusely for being on the side of real, viable regional transit. For 15 years, transit has been one of the few issues that could transcend party polarization. Now we have relapsed, apparently. The take-no-prisoners battles of the 1980s and 1990s, which blocked appropriate and essential metro transit investments for decades, seem to have returned, courtesy of Speaker Kurt Daudt and his Minnesota House Republican caucus.

Lori Sturdevant, in her Aug. 20 column “Not even business support delivers light rail,” is exactly right. If big business believes what it says about the proposed Southwest light-rail line, then it needs to spend money to eject Republican obstructionists from positions of power in the Legislature. Support those politicians who recognize reality instead. Business needs to support independence for Metro Transit, so that state leaders with no concern for metro-area rights do not have a veto over metro-area necessities.