Governor Walz’s plan for a statewide tour to push a bonding bill for public works projects has re-ignited debate at the legislature over how much the dollar amount should be. House Speaker, Democrat Melissa Hortman says with historic low interest rates and accelerating construction costs, “I think it’s important that we pass the largest bonding bill we can, with looking at three billion [dollars] as being an upward maximum.” Hortman adds, “We’re actually saving taxpayers money by investing in a bonding bill right under these circumstances.”
Senate Bonding Committee Chairman, Rochester Republican Dave Senjem says it’s a little early to talk dollar amounts, before the state gets an updated budget forecast next February. “Our focus will be on obviously the basic sewer/water infrastructure, road and bridge infrastructure,” he says. “Even at that, the money goes quite quickly.”
Senjem did say earlier that any bonding bill Senate Republicans agree to “will be nowhere close to two billion dollars. That would be completely out of line.”