Lanning under pressure in bonding bill debate

Rep. Morrie Lanning, R-Moorhead, emerged today as a person of interest for DFLers trying to get Republican support for a large bonding bill.

House Capital Investment Chairwoman Alice Hausman, DFL-St. Paul, said that Lanning stands to lose some key projects in his district if he supports Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s proposal rather than the larger DFL House bonding bill unveiled today.

“A Republican like that has a huge amount at stake,” Hausman said.

Lanning is disappointed that Pawlenty didn’t provide funding for two higher education projects in his western Minnesota district along the Red River. Pawlenty passed over funding requests for Minnesota State University-Moorhead and the Minnesota State Community Technical College in Moorhead. The House bill has $14.9 million for the university and $5.4 million for the community college.

Lanning, who serves on the Capital Investment Committee, said he doesn’t support the size of the House bill, which borrows nearly $1 billion for a variety of construction and land acquisition projects.

“There are a lot of good things in this bill. But personally I feel this bill is too big,” Lanning said.

Pawlenty last month proposed a $685 million bonding bill.

While Lanning thinks the overall House bill is too expensive, he hasn’t decided that he will vote against it in its current form.

“I’m not going to say what my vote is at this point,” he said.

Lanning added:

“Voting on the bill is one thing. Voting on overriding the governor’s veto is another thing,” he said.

Pawlenty has told DFL legislative leaders that he will use his line-item veto authority to pare the bill down to a small dollar amount. He has also reportedly said he might veto the bill in its entirety if he thinks it’s too large.

Lanning said other projects in the House bill should be nixed to make space for the two Moorhead campuses.

“I would not have a hard time trimming this bill down,” Lanning said.