Should’ve been a bonding bill — and still could be

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I write to applaud and amplify the message of the May 21 editorial (“All that acrimony, so little action”) and the May 22 column by Lori Sturdevant (“Job One for an even-year Legislature gets demoted”). Agreed. The primary missed opportunity of the 2024 legislative session was the failure to pass a critical election-year capital investment product, known as the “bonding bill.”

A massive effort was made by the House and Senate Capital Investment committees over the past year. Chaired by Sen. Sandy Pappas, D-St. Paul, and Rep. Fue Lee, D-Minneapolis, and supported by ranking members Sen. Karin Housley, R-Stillwater, and Rep. Dean Urdahl, R-Grove City, the 28 members of the two committees traveled thousands of miles and spent countless hours pursuing the greater good for Minnesota. They visited hundreds of sites and listened to the local supporters of the many worthy projects seeking state funding via general obligation bonds and cash appropriations funding.

The exhaustive work of sorting out the best of over $7 billion of requests went for naught this session. It was a bitter disappointment, particularly to Urdahl, retiring after 22 years in the House. As Sturdevant highlighted in her interview with Urdahl, other factors have often interfered with the vital capital investing business of the state. They did again this year. That is a tragedy that must, and can, be corrected yet this year.

Over $1 billion in general obligation bonds and appropriations grants were on the table the last days of session, including critically needed funding to the University of Minnesota, the Minnesota State system and a dozen state agencies for multiple asset preservation projects, as well as grants to local governments for clean drinking water, waste water treatment, public infrastructure and local community projects.

Of the $1 billion target, more than $330 million was set aside for equal designation by the two majority and two minority caucuses in the House and Senate. That pool would have been distributed to local projects, both governmental and nonprofit entities, in well over 100 communities across the state, with local legislators making the decisions in conjunction with local leaders and citizens. That is the epitome of “local control.” This enormous lost opportunity is the worst news from the recent session.

This temporary setback can be corrected. The governor, with the cooperation of all four legislative caucus leaders, has the sole and absolute authority to do so. It will only take Gov. Tim Walz to listen to the heartfelt pleas of local governments, state agencies, and association and community leaders to call a one-day, one bill special session. Yes, it will take all five of them — Walz, House Speaker Melissa Hortman, House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth, Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy and Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson — to sit down, negotiate in good faith and agree before a special session can be called. What could be more bipartisan? This would be the holy grail of leadership and cooperation at the State Capitol that Minnesota voters are desperate to see again.

A single bill, with both general obligation bond and cash appropriations funding, can do so much for the state, its communities and its businesses. The projects that such a bill would deliver are critically needed. Just listen to the urgings of the leaders of the university, Minnesota State, the League of Cities, the Association of Counties, Minnesota and local Chambers of Commerce, the Minnesota Building and Construction Trades Council and many other labor unions, local project nonprofit leaders and many, many others throughout all of Minnesota. When they all raise their voices, Walz will listen. He can call the leaders together and produce the much needed and desired result, at the most appropriate time. (In September, after the primary election and well before the November general election, would be such a time.) The governor, 41 votes in the Senate and 81 votes in the House is all it will take. In a single-bill bonding bill session, the votes will be there.

In the 2023 session, a record capital investment bill gave preliminary funding, in the form of a down payment, to many worthy projects throughout the state. As has been the tradition of the Legislature for many years in the past, those projects now need to receive the anticipated final funding and proceed to actual construction.

Walz, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and legislative leaders are waiting to hear from you. Help them act, as they were elected to do, to spread more than $1 billion dollars of critical investment in the future of Minnesota throughout every part of the state. Waiting until May 2025 will only be much more expensive. For more information on the efforts to pass a bonding bill this year, go to MNBB24.com.

Jim Erickson, of Minneapolis, just completed his 52nd session as a registered lobbyist at the Minnesota State Capitol. He is the founder and president of Solomon Strategies Group.