Democrats in the Minnesota Senate are proposing a 2.3-billion-dollar bonding bill for state public works projects. Senator Sandy Pappas (PAP-us) says Democrats are making their own proposal because they’ve been “met with silence” from Senate Republicans. Pappas says, “Minnesota has more than five billion [dollars] in requests to improve our crumbling public buildings and infrastructure across our state, and the COVID-19 pandemic has made the urgency for these jobs [that] these investments will create even greater.”
Senate Republican leaders weren’t reachable for comment, but earlier they tossed around a bonding bill figure of less than a billion dollars. *House* Republican leaders said they won’t let a bonding bill move forward unless Governor Tim Walz relinquishes his emergency COVID authority and gives the legislature a greater role in responding to the pandemic.
Included in Senate DFL proposal:
$224M for U-of-M projects
$264M for MN State college and university projects
$272M for natural resources projects
$549M for transportation projects
$254M for water infrastructure projects