Bonding bill passes easily

02/23/2005

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

By Don Davis
Capitol Reporter

ST. PAUL - Rural Minnesota House members were not happy with everything in it, but Tuesday they overwhelmingly voted for a public works funding bill.

As House and Senate versions of the bill are reconciled, Democrats promised to fight to include five northern Minnesota projects they felt were unfairly left out of the House package.

The bill, which passed 121-12, would borrow $781 million to repair college buildings, build trails, set aside marginal farmland and fund other projects. New Reps. Brita Sailer, DFL-Park Rapids, and Frank Moe, DFL-Bemidji, among a smattering of “no” votes from both parties, voted against it because five projects in their districts were not included.

It goes into a conference committee to be reconciled with a Senate-passed bill that would borrow $975 million. House Speaker Steve Sviggum, R-Kenyon, said he expects that committee to begin meeting on Friday.

Sailer delivered a mild rebuke to majority Republicans for not including her two projects.

The freshman lawmaker said she is optimistic the conference committee will return with something for her district. When Doug Lindgren, a Bagley Republican, represented the district last year, the House included $1.6 million to construct the Big Bog Recreation Area visitors’ center. The governor and the Senate also included $24 million to build a school on the Red Lake Reservation. Neither was in this year’s House bill.

Rep. Torrey Westrom, R-Elbow Lake, said rural Minnesota is being cheated in the bonding bill because it spends $106 million to expand and repair existing state prisons instead of using a private prison in Appleton.

Sen. Keith Langseth, DFL-Glyndon, has said he thinks a compromise can be worked out. Langseth, chairman of the Senate committee dealing with public works projects, frequently has said he and House Chairman Dan Dorman, R-Albert Lea, can work out their differences if left alone by legislative leaders.

The bill funds projects by the state selling bonds, much like an individual would go to a bank and get a loan.

The biggest disagreement in the nearly three hours representatives considered the bonding bill came over the Northstar commuter rail line from Minneapolis to Big Lake, northwest of the Twin cities. The House bill contained $10 million, although Northstar supporters say they need $37.5 million. The Senate bill contains the larger amount.

Although he eventually withdrew it, Westrom promoted an amendment to require the state to price the cost of using the Appleton facility instead of automatically expanding existing prisons.

Using the Appleton facility would provide “great job opportunities in rural Minnesota,” Westrom said.

The private prison has housed Wisconsin inmates, but they are being pulled out. Some conservative Minnesota Republicans have pushed to use the facility, saying it is cheaper than using state prisons.

DFL Party leaders made it clear they stand behind projects sought by Moe and Sailer, who last November defeated Republican incumbents.

“When this bill comes back from conference committee, it cannot pass unless those projects are included,” House Minority Leader Matt Entenza, DFL-St. Paul, said.

Three Bemidji projects a year ago were to be funded for $30 million, but legislators could not work out differences in their 2004 bonding bills and no public works projects were approved. This year, newly elected Moe sought less money for the three projects, but got nothing.

Moe said a new Bemidji State University hockey arena was in last year’s bill at $18 million, but he was seeking just $4 million this year for planning and to buy land. Moe wanted $3.1 million to buy land for the Paul Bunyan Trail through Bemidji and $10.8 million to update Bridgeman Hall for BSU and Northwest Technical College.

Democrats say Sviggum was bitter over losing Lindgren and Doug Fuller in the November elections, and pressured Dorman not to include the Sailer and Moe projects in the bonding bill. But Sviggum denied he had such influence.

“It is a committee bill,” he said. “It is not a speaker bill.”

Dorman said Sviggum did not pressure him to leave out the Moe and Sailer projects.

Sviggum said he supports some of the five projects. While he would not commit himself to backing certain projects, he said he still personally supports Bridgeman Hall, the hockey arena and Big Bog. He called the Red Lake school “questionable” because another reservation school construction project is not completed.

The speaker said Moe had not lobbied him to get involved in the Bemidji projects. In fact, Tuesday was the first time they had discussed the issue since Moe was elected.

While Moe was delivering mild complaints about his lack of projects Tuesday, Sviggum smiled.

Looking at Sviggum, who was presiding over the House session, Moe said: “You supported these bills in the past.”

When she spoke, Sailer said the Big Bog project would result in $2 million of economic development for her district in Hubbard, Clearwater and Beltrami counties.

Moe said that he has assurances from Langseth that the missing projects will be included at some funding level in the project of the conference committee, which then must be accepted by the House and Senate.

“We’re confident all these projects will be represented in some way,” Moe said.