As a Minnesota House committee wraps up its northwest Minnesota visit hearing pitches for projects, top Democrats hint at a much larger bonding bill than usual in 2020. Majority Leader Ryan Winkler says it’s too early for a number, but given the need and the state’s bonding capacity of 3.5 billion dollars, “I think a bill north of two billion dollars is well within the realm of reasonable.”
Senate bonding committee Chairman, Rochester Republican Dave Senjem disagrees. “I will tell you, it will be nowhere close to two billion dollars. That would be completely out of line from the standpoint of our budget targets,” Senjem says.
House Majority Winkler fires Republicans claim to represent the interests of Greater Minnesota and rural communities and “I don’t think it should be a big lift for Republicans to actually stand up for their own communities and ask for the investment that the state traditionally has made.”
Senjem responds, “We’ll have a good bonding bill. Don’t worry about that…. But it’s not gonna be irresponsible…. We’ve got to live, as everybody else does, within in the framework of money available in our budget.”