House lawmakers are in southeast Minnesota today (Mon) and tomorrow hearing pitches from projects vying for state bonding dollars, while their Senate counterparts visit southwest Minnesota Tuesday through Thursday. Governor Tim Walz is preparing his own statewide campaign to push for a robust bonding bill in 2020. He says, “This is old-school Republican philosophy that there are certain things you spend on that make sense: When you can get historically low interest rates, keep construction costs down, I think they’ll be there.”
House Democrats are tossing around bonding bill numbers as high as three billion dollars — likely much more than Republicans would agree to. Rochester Senator Dave Senjem says, “There’s a lot of pressure to spend more, but to spend more you have to have more…. To have more is a reflection of what the economy of Minnesota is doing.”
The legislature goes back into session next February.