The Minnesota House on Monday passed a $200 million bonding bill designed to spur job creation for projects ready to get off the ground quickly.
The measure, which falls close in scale to what Gov. Tim Pawlenty would find palatable, includes $39 million for road and transit repairs and improvement and $50 million for building upkeep at the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system.
Rep. Alice Hausman, DFL-St. Paul, chairwoman of the House Capital Investment Committee, said many viable local projects were left out of the bill in order to focus on projects of statewide interest that can get underway quickly.
A Senate bonding bill (SF 781), approved earlier, would spend $329 million and includes construction of a new Bell Museum on the St. Paul campus of the University of Minnesota, renovation of St. Paul's Como Zoo and expansion of the St. Cloud Civic Center.
Last week, Pawlenty signaled interest in a bonding bill closer in size to the House proposal.
The House bill (HF 855) also includes $20 million to improve the state's sex offender facility at Moose Lake and $12.7 million for flood mitigation, although northwest Minnesota legislators said it provided too little in relief.
The 93-40 vote included seven Republicans supporting the measure.
With the state facing a projected $4.57 billion budget deficit, House Minority Leader Marty Seifert, R-Marshall, objected to the bill, saying it was no time for the state to be going deeper into debt.
MARK BRUNSWICK