Capitol View: February 24, 2010 Archive

Bonding Bill Math

Posted at 12:42 PM on February 24, 2010 by Mike Mulcahy (2 Comments)
Filed under: MN Legislature, Tim Pawlenty

How far apart are DFL legislators and the governor on the bonding bill? Let's look at some of the public statements both sides have made and get out our pencils.

Start with the projects the governor says he wants added to the bill:

Expansion of the Moose Lake sex offender facility-- $89 million
Security improvements at Oak Park Heights prison-- $10 million
Minneapolis Veterans home improvements-- $9.4 million

For a total of -------------------------------------- $108.4 Million

Add that to the approximately $1 billion dollar bill passed by the House and Senate and you get $1.108 billion in total spending requests.

From that, subtract the projects the governor wants out of the bill:

The Potter Center for the Arts -- $5 million
Minneapolis Sculpture Garden -- $2 million
Theodore Wirth winter sports improvements -- $1 millon
Local civic centers-- $63 million
Princeton public safety building -- $2.8 million

For a total of approximately------------------------- $74 million

That leaves a total bonding package of $1.034 billion, or about $34 million more than the current bill.

In comparison the governor's total bonding proposal was $685 million, but he has indicated that he could go as high as about $725 million.

That would leave it to lawmakers to cut about $309 million dollars in projects that have already been voted on by the Legislature.

And here are the most important numbers of all: 81 and 41.

Those are the number of votes it takes to pass a bonding bill in the House and in the Senate. The question is: would there be that many votes for a bill that has $309 million less in construction projects than the one that has already passed?

Comment on this post

Private: "Withdrawn from company or observation"

Posted at 2:45 PM on February 24, 2010 by Tom Scheck
Filed under: MN Legislature, Tim Pawlenty

Gov. Pawlenty is scheduled to meet with legislative leaders of both parties today to discuss a fix to General Assistance Medical Care and the bonding bill. Those meetings will be behind closed doors, which is a common occurrence on some negotiations.

Why is this interesting? Well, Pawlenty and his spokesman Brian McClung blasted Democrats for negotiating a bonding bill behind closed doors.

Here's what Pawlenty wrote to DFL Rep. Alice Hausman and DFL Sen. Keith Langseth when he was expressing concern about the bill:

"It is my understanding that much of this bill was assembled behind closed doors by some conference committee members and the completed bill was unveiled to the public at approximately 1:00AM this morning. This lack of transparency is unacceptable."

His spokesman Brian McClung went a step further

"This is a 97 page bill that was negotiated by Democrats behind closed doors and only revealed to the public at 1:30AM. That is simply unacceptable. The people of Minnesota expect better." Listen

When I asked McClung whether Pawlenty's meetings with lawmakers would be in private, he e-mailed this response:

"The meetings will be held in the Governor's office with invited legislators and staff. Unlike the behind-closed-door bonding meetings on Sunday, these meetings will be conducted during regular working hours, the attendees will be known to the media and others, and the public discussion would occur immediately afterwards and not at 1:00 a.m."

When I followed up to ask whether the meetings are, in fact, being held behind closed doors, this was his response:

"Invited legislators and staff are welcome."

For those wondering, here's Merriam-Webster's definition of private.