ST. PAUL (LEARFIELD) – “Pretty significant disappointment,” says the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities about the legislature *not* passing a bonding bill for state public works projects during this year’s session.
Spokesman Bradley Peterson contends it’s time for lawmakers to re-think the approach to bonding.
“For years, since the 90’s we’ve been living beyond this notion that a bonding bill can’t be bigger than a billion dollars,” said Peterson. “I think it’s time we move our thinking beyond that.”
Each year lawmakers are presented billions of dollars in bonding requests for work on state-backed construction projects. Peterson says the state should be doing what it can to address those needs.
“Really dig into what our the needs that we have and what capacity do we have to meet those needs,” said Peterson. “If we have the capacity to do more than a billion dollars, we should do more than a billion dollars.”
In recent years the debate over bonding bills has been tangled up with attempts to provide more funding for roads and bridges.
