Lawmakers propose another $1 billion bonding bill

Posted at 2:27 PM on March 9, 2010 by Tom Scheck (4 Comments)
Filed under: MN Legislature, Tim Pawlenty

House and Senate negotiators are proposing a $1 billion bonding bill (well, $999,655 in general obligation bonds). Among the key differenes is $47.5 million for the expansion of a sex offender treatment facility in Moose Lake and more funding for the Mayo Civic Center ($28 million).

The Legislature revised the bill today after making a series of parliamentary moves. They passed a nearly $1 billion bonding bill in February but pulled the bill back after they realized Governor Pawlenty was going to veto it.

Pawlenty criticized DFLers for passing a bonding bill that spent $300 million more than his proposal and didn't include funding for the sex offender treatment facility and for perimeter fencing at Oak Park Heights (which is also included in the latest DFL plan).

You can read the full spreadsheet here. Here's the language.

Comments (4)

Maybe I'm reading this wrong but I think they reduced, not gave more, funding for Mayo Civic ($32 down to $28).

Posted by Luther | March 10, 2010 8:46 AM

Huh, I think that spreadsheet is wrong b/c it's $3 million more. Post-Bulletin says so too.

http://postbulletin.typepad.com/political_party/

Posted by tom scheck | March 10, 2010 11:55 AM

Well I guess it depends on how you look at it. If the February 22nd conference report had $32 and the March 9th conference report has $28 it looks like a cut to me. It is pretty good press work by Senator Lynch to act like they are giving $3 more just because they non-officially said they were going to cut it further than they actually did. Thanks.

Posted by Luther | March 10, 2010 12:35 PM

Ok, I got this figured out on the Mayo thing. It was at $32 million in the conf. committee report in February. But they scaled it back $7 million from that last week. They added funds back to make it $28. So yes, it is a cut from the proposal that was in the conference committee report in February. Sorry about the confusion.

Posted by tom scheck | March 10, 2010 6:34 PM

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