The Minnesota House will likely vote later today on an $800-million bonding bill for state public works projects that Republicans floated Monday to try to break an end-of-session stalemate. Grove City Republican Dean Urdahl told his D-F-L colleagues last night, “One way or another, people, we gotta do this. We have critical needs in the state. We have a crumbling infrastructure. We have to find a way to get this done.” But the bill is a much smaller than Governor Mark Dayton and Democrats want. House Minority Leader Melissa Hortman says, “My caucus doesn’t have a lot of interest in voting for something on faith that will get ‘fixed later,’ so I think let’s get it right, let’s pass a bill off the House floor that the Senate can concur with and get it right to the governor’s desk.” Bonding bills require a supermajority to pass and Republicans need Democratic votes.
Dayton says the House Republican bill as it stands is “not nearly adequate.” He’s proposed a bonding bill of well over $1 billion. Six days remain in the legislative session.