House OKs bill that includes $33M to house sex offenders

05/02/2006

Associated Press
May 2, 2006

An $88 million spending bill won lopsided approval in the House on Monday after more than three hours of debate.

The supplemental spending bill passed on a vote of 103-29. Its biggest items were $33 million to house and treat additional sex offenders in state hospitals and $31 million to confine those defined as mentally ill and dangerous.

“It could perhaps be called the public safety and lock-up-the-sex-offenders bill,” said Rep. Jim Knoblach, R-St. Cloud, the bill’s sponsor.

The bill was amended to include two provisions backed by abortion opponents — one to ban public funding of abortions for women on public health programs, the other to track judges who let minors have abortions without telling their parents.

Republicans defeated DFL efforts to amend the bill to send more money to Minnesota State Colleges and Universities campuses, expand state-sponsored health care for the working poor and force Wal-Mart and other big employers to spend more on employee health insurance.