Editorial: Bonding for jobs in Wisconsin

Star Tribune Editoral

A move last week by Wisconsin GOP Gov. Scott Walker attracted notice at the Minnesota Capitol, even though it had little to do with public employee unions.

It was Walker's recommendation that the Wisconsin Legislature approve $1.1 billion in public building projects this year, all but $200 million of which are to be financed with state bonds.

On Walker's project wish list was a good deal more than basic infrastructure.

It included $76 million for a new Badger Performance Center on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus; $44 million for an education building at UW-Eau Claire, and $5 million for a joint museum for the state Historical Society and Department of Veterans Affairs.

In other words, it was loaded with the kind of projects that, in Minnesota, DFLers have often championed, that former Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty used to ridicule and that this year's Republican legislators have so far rejected.

DFL Gov. Mark Dayton's proposal for a $1 billion bonding bill this session has gone nowhere to date, despite his offer to allow GOP legislators to select half of the projects.

Dayton's argument that state building projects generate needed construction jobs has been scorned. Yet that's the argument that Republican Walker used to justify his billion-dollar list.

It would "maintain state buildings, plan for growth and, most importantly, create jobs."

One could say that a governor who has put his thumb in the eyes of his state's union members has ample political reason to talk about creating jobs, and the building trades jobs that state projects generate are a good a place to start.

Construction trades were especially hard hit during the Great Recession. In Minnesota, the latest year-over-year employment figures show 3,500 construction jobs lost in year three of the recession.

But there are good reasons other than politics and job creation for states to step up their borrowing for capital improvements now.

Borrowing and building costs are low; demand for facilities such as college laboratories and transit is high and getting higher, and adequate infrastructure can do much to lure future private-sector investment.

Minnesota is a long way from being in debt trouble. Its bonds sell with near-top credit ratings. Moody's Investors Service noted last summer that Minnesota ranks a modest 28th among the states in debt as a percentage of personal income.

The full burden of debt service on new bonds authorized this year wouldn't be felt until the 2014-15 biennium or later; it wouldn't impede balancing the 2012-13 budget.

This page has been loath this year to recommend that Minnesota state government follow the Wisconsin governor's lead. But we'll make an exception for bonding.

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