The roughly 200-million-dollar increase in the state’s expected budget surplus has given Democrats ammunition in their push for a larger-than-usual bonding bill for state public works projects. Governor Tim Walz says the extra money by itself is enough to pay for a “robust” bonding bill. And what about one larger than the two billion dollars he’s proposed? “I think it’ll probably be hard to stretch a long ways, but I think they should be willing to listen,” Walz says. House Republican Leader Kurt Daudt responds, “Is there a chance we could go above a billion? There is a chance we could. Is there a chance it’s near two billion? Probably not.”
House D-F-L leaders won’t say what they’ll propose, but some high-ranking Democrats have been talking about a three-and-a-half-billion-dollar bonding bill.