Dayton foresees $1 billion bonding bill in 2014
Minnesota cities and counties have a growing laundry list of construction projects for which they're hoping to land state funding.
As the Pioneer Press reports, Gov. Mark Dayton says state officials have already received requests for $1.8 billion worth of building projects and expect that figure will grow to $3 billion by the end of the summer.
How many of those requests from local governments and state agencies will actually receive funding? Dayton says his staff will likely narrow the list down to $1 billion of projects that will go into the bonding bill he submits to the 2014 legislature.
The governor tells the newspaper there is a pent-up demand for new construction.
In this past session, lawmakers in the House failed to pass a bill that would have authorized about $800 million worth of spending for improvements to colleges, sewer plants, roads, parks, and museums among other projects.
A slimmed-down version containing $156 million in spending - most of it for state Capitol repairs - was approved.
Bonding bills need approval from three-fifths of legislators to pass. Lawmakers traditionally take them up in even-numbered years when they are not writing a budget for the biennium.
