The Minnesota Senate and House have now drawn their lines in the sand, well below the 1.5 billion dollars in bonding money Governor Mark Dayton is requesting for state public works projects. After Senate Republicans unveiled their plan Wednesday, they and their House counterparts are both at 825 million dollars. House bonding point man Dean Urdahl told fellow lawmakers last week, “I can’t guarantee that it’s gonna get bigger…. Don’t approach that as a sure thing that’s going to happen.” And his Senate counterpart, Rochester Republican Dave Senjem, is stating a position even more firm: “I have no expectations that this bill will rise above 825 million dollars,” Senjem says. “I mean, there’s just no money, frankly, available to me at least, to suggest that that’s a possibility.”
Republicans and Governor Dayton have 11 days to work out a compromise before the end-of-session deadline. Bw at the Cap.)
More details on the Senate’s bonding bill in this interview with Senjem: