Legislature pulls back bonding bill

Gov. Tim Pawlenty was poised to veto the bonding bill passed Monday by the state Legislature when House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher announced Tuesday that she was pulling the bill back, calling it a “cooling-off period.”
Pawlenty had warned legislators before the Senate’s final vote Monday night that if Democrats didn’t change some of the projects and bring the cost down, he would veto the entire bill.
“They intentionally did this, and now they have to clean up the mess,” Pawlenty said at a press conference Tuesday.
Pawlenty said he had been clear about what he needed in the bill in order to avoid a veto and that legislators “ignored all of our input.”
The recalled bill included $100 million in projects for the University of Minnesota, down from the $193.3 requested.
The University’s funding included $23 million for renovations to Folwell Hall, $5 million for construction on the new physics and nanotechnology building and $55 million for Higher Education Asset Preservation and Replacement, which is used for building and infrastructure maintenance.
The rest of the funds would go to projects in Itasca and Duluth and general laboratory renovations.
Senate Minority Leader Geoff Michel, R-Edina, said he had fully expected to be speaking about a veto at the press conference Tuesday, but he said DFLers were heading in the right direction by pulling back the bill.
“This is what happens when you rush,” Michel said. “This is what happens when you work in the dark.”
The governor emphasized the nearly $1 billion price tag was simply too high for the current economic situation and mentioned projects he still wanted included in the bill, including building a new treatment facility for sex offenders.
He also voiced concerns that the projects were too focused on local issues rather than the state as a whole and that the bill and vote were not bipartisan but were heavily weighted toward DFLers.
Pawlenty’s proposed recommendations for the bonding bill would put the cost at $685 million, what he has called an “affordable and responsible” amount. He’s agreed to support a bill of up to $725 million.
The bill had passed in the House of Representatives with a vote of 85-46 and in the Senate with a vote of 47-19.
If the governor had vetoed the bill, the House would not have enough votes to override the veto, at least according to the original vote.
Pawlenty said legislative leaders are trying to play “political Santa Claus,” putting in projects and expecting him to line-item veto to bring the cost down. He said if the bill had been closer to his proposal, he might have done that, and that has happened in the past.
“We’re not doing that this time,” Pawlenty said.

-The Associated Press contributed to this report