House presents $248 million bonding bill
The Minnesota Zoo has found funding in both House and Senate bonding
bills, but other local projects failed to land on both feet.
The House today (Monday, March 30) presented a $248 million bonding
bill, more than a $100 million smaller than the bill passed by the
Senate.
by T.W. Budig
ECM Capitol reporter
The Minnesota Zoo has found funding in both House and Senate bonding bills, but other local projects failed to land on both feet.
The House today (Monday, March 30) presented a $248 million bonding bill, more than a $100 million smaller than the bill passed by the Senate.
The House presented a $248 million bonding bill today (Monday, March 30), and while House Capital Investment committee members representative Rick Hansen (left), DFL-South St. Paul, and Peggy Scott (right), R-Andover, scrutinized the bill, no votes were taken. (Photos by T.W. Budig, ECM Capitol Reporter)
While the Minnesota Zoo is slated for $4 million in the House bill for asset preservation ? $1 million more slated in the Senate bill ? the National Sports Center in Blaine and the Big Lake Regional Ice Center fail to make the House bill.
Coon Rapids grant included
Other local projects found in the Senate bonding bill ? a grant to the City of Coon Rapids to develop a pedestrian/bike trail along 85th Avenue to the Mississippi Regional Trail Corridor and more than $2 million for the redevelopment and expansion of Springbrook Nature Center in Fridley ? likewise fail to make the cut in the House.
House Capital Investment Committee Chairwoman Alice Hausman, DFL-St. Paul, said she would have been happy with a $500 million bonding bill.
But that was not going to happen, she explained.
Both the University of Minnesota and Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) funding for new roofs and windows and other infrastructure needs in the House bill.
About $50 million is directed toward transportation in the House bonding bill ? the Minnesota Department of Transportation commuter and passenger rail corridors programs is slated more than $7 million, for instance.
No votes were taken in today's capital investment committee hearing.
House Minority Leader Marty Seifert, R-Marshall, said the House bonding bill breaks the state's credit card limit.
