House Speaker Kurt Zellers described the latest $496 million bonding bill as a "vanilla" bill.

It's larger than the House's original offer of $280 million, smaller than the governor's $775 million wish list.
It comes packed with brick and mortar projects like flood mitigation and bridge repairs. Missing from the bill are the sort of local projects that members usually get to bring home to their districts.

There's no money for convention centers in this bill, or the Southwest rail corridor, or a face lift for Nicollet Mall, or a new minor league ballpark for the St. Paul Saints. It scaled back the House's original plan to borrow more than $200 million to repair the crumbling state Capitol to a more modest $44 million.

Other highlights include: $200 million for projects at state colleges and universities, $30 million for flood control and $83 million for economic projects and grants.

A few local projects did make it into the bill. The Minnesota Zoo would get $5 million to repair its dolphin tank and Minneapolis's Phillips neighborhood would get $1.7 million to repair the last public swimming pool in the urban core.

2012 House Bonding Bill