Minnesota House passes $1B bonding bill

The Minnesota House passed a $1.1 billion bonding bill Monday night with no changes made to its initial $77 million proposal for University of Minnesota bonding projects.
The bill maintained that the University receive $40 million for building maintenance and repairs, $20 million in funding for the renovation of Folwell Hall, and the requested funding for an American Indian learning center in Duluth, a new Itasca biological research station and general campus-wide science lab renovations.
The smallest of the three bonding proposals being discussed at the Capitol, the House bill does not include funding for a new physics and nanotechnology building at the University — a project fully funded in Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s bill. The Senate included $5 million in planning money for the building in its bill.
Rep. Sarah Anderson, R-Plymouth, proposed an amendment seeking to include full funding for the physics and nanotechnology building, saying the project is “of statewide significance.”
Anderson said nanotechnology is “a boat that we want to make sure we jump on and make sure Minnesota is a leader in.”
The amendment, which proposed cancelling state funding for a new planetarium to fund the facility, also called for more than $25 million to be added to the allotted $40 million in HEAPR funding in the bill.
Rep. Alice Hausman, DFL-St. Paul, the primary author of the House bonding bill, didn’t support the amendment, saying higher education already makes up the largest portion of the bill.
“Because this amendment … takes from some and gives to others, I would encourage a ‘no’ vote,” Hausman said.
The amendment was not adopted after a 50-82 vote.
Last week, the Senate allotted the University $111.3 million in its version of the bonding bill. The governor’s bill, proposed last month, includes $100 million for the University’s provisions.
The House and Senate bonding bill proposals — each totaling close to $1 billion — will be discussed and combined into one before being presented to the governor in the coming weeks.