House committee recommends $200 million bonding bill

A Minnesota House committee today recommended a basic bonding bill that includes $200 million in projects designed to create new jobs quickly and make the most effective use of the state’s share of federal stimulus money, according to the committee’s chair, Rep. Alice Hausman, DFL-St. Paul.

"We focused like a laser on those projects that are paintbrush-ready and shovel-ready," Hausman said in a statement after the House Capital Investment Finance Division reviewed the legislation, which is expected to pass out of committee on Tuesday and move on to the full House early next week.

In odd-numbered years, the Legislature is responsible for crafting the state’s two-year state budget and a supplemental bonding bill. Although lawmakers are facing a $6.4 billion budget deficit this session, along with unemployment numbers that are expected to continue to rise throughout 2010, the House bonding proposal is higher than the $120 million in the budget forecast.

"Interest rates are low, construction bids are favorable and workers are hungry for jobs," Hausman said. "Bonding projects are universally accepted as one of the best ways for government to stimulate the economy and disrupt the downward economic spiral we’re in."

Although Gov. Tim Pawlenty didn’t propose a public works program this year, he has said that he might be amenable to a modest bonding bill that would help the state make full use of its share of the federal stimulus package.

Hausman said her committee focused primarily on projects that protect health and safety, improve transportation and other infrastructure and preserve state assets by repairing or renovating existing structures, at the same time leveraging federal stimulus and matching dollars as much as possible.

Among the House proposal’s recommendations are $30 million for Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU), $20 million for the University of Minnesota, $20 million to improve security at the state’s sex offender facility in Moose Lake, $12.7 million for flood mitigation, $11 million for local bridge replacement and $2.1 million for veterans’ homes.

Notably absent from the House committee’s recommendations are local projects like improvements to Como Zoo and the Central Corridor light-rail line that would link Minneapolis and St. Paul, both of which were among the items included in the Senate’s $329 million bonding bill passed earlier this month.