No bonding bill made it into law this session
There was confusion on the Minnesota Senate floor just before the legislature adjourned at midnight Monday with no bonding bill for state construction projects.
Just minutes before, the House approved a package of just under one billion dollars and sent the bill to the Senate, which added a provision that would have allowed Hennepin County to pay for the Southwest Light Rail Line on its own — but the House had already adjourned the session. Senate Democratic Leader Tom Bakk said, “Why they made a decision to go home is a mystery to me, but they have killed the bonding bill.”
House Speaker, Republican Kurt Daudt blames Democrats. “They were playing some other games here at the end of the night and, ultimately, we may have lost 700 million dollars of money for roads and bridges because of game-playing,” Daudt said. The legislature in its closing hours did pass a bill with a variety of tax cuts plus a supplemental budget bill that uses part of the state’s 900-million-dollar budget surplus to fund a number of programs.
But the 2016 session adjourned without a transportation funding package that Democrats and Republicans alike said was one of their top priorities.