By Kevin Coss

kevin.coss@austindailyherald.com

 

With only four days left in the legislative session after today, hopes are high among area legislators that a bonding bill will still pass.

“I think we should be able to find the votes to do it,” said Rep. Rich Murray, R-Albert Lea.

The bonding bill requires a vote in the House and Senate and needs to pass on a supermajority.

“A bonding bill is the type of thing that both Republicans and Democrats have to get behind to pass,” Murray said, explaining the bill provides a lot of money for roads, bridges and other matters like flood prevention.

Rep. Jeanne Poppe said committee chairs and majority leaders in the House and Senate have both agreed upon a bill that grants The Hormel Institute’s expansion its requested $13.5 million. Now it depends on whether the House and Senate floors will pass that.

The House is scheduled to vote on the bill Monday, and needs 81 to pass it. Sparks said the bill cannot receive a vote in the Senate until the House passes it, which pushes a Senate vote back to Tuesday at earliest. He said the Senate version of the bill is likely to include $30 million for flood mitigation efforts.

Despite votes on the bill coming over the horizon, Sen. Dan Sparks, DFL-Austin, said the bill isn’t what it should have been.

“It appears that only a very slimmed-down version of a bonding bill will be passed this year,” Sparks said in a column on Page 9. “[It’s] nowhere near the level of investment we should be making in our economy and infrastructure.”