St. Paul, MN- State Representative Pat Garofalo, R-Farmington, is urging legislative leaders to reform how the state borrows money for public projects. In hopes of increasing transparency and moving the Legislature away from the “Showcase Showdown” of high-stakes, all-or-nothing bonding bills, Rep. Garofalo is encouraging leaders to break the bonding bill into five different bills based on subject area.
“Minnesotans depend on the bonding bill to fund needed maintenance on public infrastructure,” said Garofalo. “One single, all-or-nothing, giant bonding bill does not serve the best interests of the taxpayers of our state. Cramming every project into one bill results in good projects being attached to unneeded and wasteful spending.”
Unlike normal bills in which the majority party can pass a bill by itself, the bonding bill requires a super-majority in each legislative chamber to pass. Because of this, it is ideal for bipartisan reform.
Garofalo proposes splitting the bonding bill into five smaller bills based on the following subject areas:
- Higher Education
- Transportation
- Infrastructure
- Asset Preservation
- Miscellaneous
“For too long, more and more decisions are being made by fewer and fewer people. This process needs to stop,” said Rep. Garofalo. “This process has done serious damage to our institution and everyone should agree that we do not want to see it repeated in the future. This is a common-sense change that will help produce better outcomes for taxpayers and move us away from the end of session brinkmanship that has eroded the legislative process.”
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