Gov. Tim Walz rolled out his 2026 public works spending proposal on Thursday, Jan. 15, calling for $907 million in spending on public safety, transportation, water and other projects.
Walz’s recommendations would be funded by $700 million in general obligation bonds floated by the state and $207 million from other sources. The governor’s bonding package kicks off the debate over infrastructure spending ahead of the 2026 legislative session, which will convene in mid-February.
“This capital budget makes critical investments across the state, ensuring state facilities are well-maintained and communities thrive while maintaining fiscal responsibility‚” Erin Campbell, Walz’s budget commissioner, wrote in a letter to lawmakers.
Lawmakers typically try to pass a package of construction projects in even-numbered years, but any proposal will require bipartisan support to pass through Minnesota’s narrowly divided House and Senate.
Just over a third of the spending would go toward maintenance of existing state infrastructure, a news release from the governor’s office says. Nearly 20% would go toward water and transportation projects, 16% to public safety projects and 11% to affordable housing and local economic development.
Walz recommended $41 million in spending on security upgrades in and around the state Capitol in St. Paul, which officials are trying to make safer after the assassination of DFL House Leader Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, in their home last June.
Other high-profile proposals include $61 million for an expansion and renovation of the Department of Correction’s prison in Rush City, which officials said last year is over capacity, and $47 million to renovate and expand a Bureau of Criminal Apprehension facility in Bemidji.
The proposal calls for $50 million for “high-priority pavement projects” on state highways and $10 million to remodel the transportation building on the Capitol complex so the Department of Transportation can vacate some space and allow other agencies to use it.
![Rising above the treeline (Top of this photo), on the shore of Birch Lake, the Twin Metals Copper Nickel Mine Plant site and Tailings Management site is part of the proposed plan. ] In theory, the copper-nickel mine Twin Metals wants to build in the headwaters of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is a zero-discharge mine -- a closed loop that will endlessly recycle millions of gallons of water, including rainwater and the polluted process water it uses to extract ore and](https://arc.stimg.co/startribunemedia/YHBTRGPTHTAE2QDYTS6YZ24OS4.jpg?&w=252&ar=3:2&fit=crop)
