Will Governor Walz, Republicans and Democrats be able to agree on a bonding bill for state public works projects? With less than two days remaining until Senate G-O-P leaders say they’ll adjourn the legislature’s special session, Hamline University analyst David Schultz puts the chances at less-than-even. “Even if they were to agree on the dollar amount at this point, they need to agree on projects. And so there’s a lot of work to be done — not impossible in roughly 48 hours, but very, very difficult to do that,” Schultz says.
Senate Republicans upped their bonding number to 1.35 billion dollars, but Governor Tim Walz has stayed at his original number of about 2.2 billion. An additional wrinkle in last-minute negotiations: House G-O-P Minority Leader Kurt Daudt has said unless Walz is willing to talk about relinquishing his COVID emergency powers, it’s “very unlikely” Republicans will supply necessary votes to pass a bonding bill.