$306.6 million state bonding bill passes on a 56-9 vote in Senate

03/29/2007

By Conrad Defiebre, Star Tribune
Last update: March 28, 2007


A $306.6 million public works bill to build and maintain state university facilities, mass transit, bridges and more easily passed the Minnesota Senate on Wednesday.

The bipartisan vote of 56 to 9 was well above the minimum 60 percent support needed for state borrowing, which would pay about half the cost.

What's in the bill

Along with the usual mix of conservation, transportation, public safety and jobs projects, the bill would promise the University of Minnesota $233.6 million in bonding for new bioscience research facilities over the next decade.

University leaders and Senate advocates say the investment is needed to maintain the state's leadership in a lucrative area of economic growth. But the House and Gov. Tim Pawlenty have not matched the Senate's unusual long-term commitment.

Last year, all parties approved $40 million in borrowing for the first of the university's six planned bioscience buildings, scheduled for groundbreaking this spring. Now the House and Senate, but not Pawlenty, are proposing $14.4 million for a second, remodeled building. The Senate's promised financing would cover 80 percent of the next four structures.

What's not in the bill

The most glaring omission from all the bonding plans, according to some senators, is money to restore the 102-year-old State Capitol.

"The Capitol is literally falling down," said Sen. Ann Rest, DFL-New Hope. "It is no longer safe. I would be very cautious about having school children walk around this building very much longer."

In addition to falling plaster, Rest said, the Capitol has inadequate ventilation, a lack of sprinklers and weak defenses against a terrorist attack, and it remains inaccessible to the handicapped. Planning has begun to address these concerns, but a lack of funding would stall the process, Rest said.

Senate Capital Investment Chairman Keith Langseth, DFL-Glyndon, said he wanted to put $130 million into the project, but was rebuffed by other state leaders. Rest said $29 million now would keep design work on track, averting construction inflation costs of up to $20 million per year.

What's next?

A conference committee will reconcile the Senate bill with a $289.7 million measure the House passed on Tuesday. Then come negotiations with Gov. Pawlenty, who has proposed a much smaller $71 million measure and has the power to veto bonding bills in whole or in part.

In addition to borrowing, both the House and the Senate would spend more than $100 million of a one-time state budget surplus on construction projects. Pawlenty has recommended no use of the surplus for that purpose. Any eventual compromise would probably be part of an overall settlement on a two-year state budget of more than $34 billion.