Rep. Alice Hausman (DFL-St. Paul)
As talk continues about a special session the third week of August to pass a bonding bill, a top Democrat advises her colleagues to be “as cooperative as possible.” Saint Paul Representative Alice Hausman, lead Democrat on the House bonding committee, is backing a corrected version of the bill that came up in the closing minutes of the regular session. Hausman says, “Even if we just did that, with maybe a couple of things added that the governor and Speaker [Kurt] Daudt are still looking at I think, that… would be a good bill.” That bill was just under one billion dollars, though Democrats wanted a much larger figure. Governor Mark Dayton and Republican leaders said several weeks ago they wanted a special session in late August, but national political conventions diverted attention for a while.