In the session that ended over the weekend, the Legislature did not pass a bonding bill, meaning the state won’t be borrowing money to pay for several proposed statewide and local projects in the upcoming year.
While bonding bills often come together toward the end of sessions, that didn’t happen this year as the DFL and GOP couldn’t agree on a larger package. Because the state takes on debt with bonding packages, their passage requires the approval of 60% of the House and Senate members.
The Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities had advocated for a bonding deal that would include an emphasis on city infrastructure, especially when it comes to pollution mitigation, such as improving wastewater systems.
Bradley Peterson, the coalition’s executive director, said many Greater Minnesota priorities came in second to the state’s other goals. “Part of the challenge was the majority had a lot of priorities — a lot of balls in the air,” he said, “and they just were not able to get bonding in partnership with the Republicans across the finish line.”
Throughout the week, both Democrats and Republicans expressed interest in passing an infrastructure package. But the Republicans’ offer to support the package in exchange for the Democrats dropping their support of an Equal Rights Amendment was something House Majority Leader Melissa Hortman said was non-negotiable. (While the House passed the ERA, it did not come to a vote in the Senate before adjournment).
“We were simply not willing to forgo our values and what we ran on and what we got elected on to try to get some kind of a deal with Republicans on a construction bill,” she said.
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On Sunday night, a cash-only capital investment bill of about $71 million was brought to the House Rules and Legislative Administration Committee. Cash-only bills require simple majority support, so it passed in the House with less than 10 minutes before the session deadline, despite Minority Leader Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, urging members to vote against the bill, saying it was unclear what they were voting for and that the bill had not been discussed.
It reached the Senate a few minutes before the deadline and was about 30 seconds too late to pass.
City groups disappointed
An outline of how the funds would be split was presented last week at a Capital Investment Committee meeting, where DFLers proposed setting aside around $330 million for local projects and $600 million for state agencies.
The list of local projects focused on wastewater treatment initiatives across the state and building improvements, among other things.
Sen. Sandra Pappas, DFL-St. Paul, said at that meeting that the Democrats tried to work with Republicans to include the projects Republicans wanted. Some Republicans, like Sen. Karin Housley of Stillwater, did not want to share those lists out of mistrust.
“We’re not disclosing our projects because we don’t have an agreed-upon deal,” Housley said.
Later in the week, Demuth confirmed that the GOP had its list of projects for the bonding bill.
“We have everything ready to go,” she said at a Thursday press conference, “that if something would change and the majority actually wants to work with the minority and it seems like the right thing to do, we are ready to go on that.”
The figures put forth during negotiations were for a package of roughly $860 million in general obligation funds and $30 million in cash — considerably less than last year’s $2.58 billion bill that came after a nearly three-year period without any bonding bills.
“It’s definitely a disappointment,” said Anne Finn, the intergovernmental relations director for the League of Minnesota Cities.
“It will have a big impact on cities,” she added, “whether it’s individual projects that cities worked really hard to advance or some of the bigger pots of money that cities rely upon from year-to-year to fund things like water infrastructure and roads and bridges.”
Finn said she’s already heard from city officials in Albert Lea and Austin who are concerned about project funding.
Peterson, of the CGMC, said some funds are filtering out to communities in Greater Minnesota through last year’s bonding bill but that this year’s failed bill was still a setback. “Not getting a bonding bill done this year is only going to make that list longer next year,” he said.
Ava Kian
Ava Kian is MinnPost’s Greater Minnesota reporter. Follow her on Twitter @kian_ava or email her at akian@minnpost.com.
