ST. PAUL – A capital investment package with $22.5 million for a project at Bemidji State University and $12.5 million toward construction of a veterans home in Bemidji was among the bills receiving final approval from the Legislature in the waning minutes of the 2018 legislative session Sunday night.
“This is a great day for Bemidji,” said Rep. Matt Bliss, R-Pennington. “Funding for the veterans home in Bemidji and for construction at BSU are huge, at a combined $35 million for our district. Those projects have been muddling along in the proposal state for years – long before I was in the House – and I am proud we have brought them to the brink of enactment. Many other good measures to provide tax relief, transportation funding and student safety funding also are on the governor’s desk. People in this region are counting on the governor to do the right thing by signing them into law and we can only ask him to do the right thing.”
Overall, it is an infrastructure-heavy, geographically balanced capital investment package with $825 million in general obligation bonding to fund construction projects throughout the state. The majority of funding is dedicated to bricks-and-mortar projects, such as roads and bridges, water infrastructure and statewide asset preservation. Funding for the construction of veterans homes adds up to $32 million, with facilities in Montevideo and Preston in addition to Bemidji. There also was $10 million in the bill for the renovation of existing homes.
Bliss said improved school safety and student mental health were high priorities for the House. The bonding bill passed Sunday night brings the total school safety investment to more than $50 million – double the amount proposed by Dayton.
That bonding bill was just one of several the Legislature passed before adjourning. We also passed a compromise tax conformity and education funding bill, a bonding bill, and a pension bill to the governor.
The tax conformity and education plan were part of a compromise effort between legislative Republicans and Dayton. The federal conformity plan protects taxpayers, simplifies Minnesota's tax code, and provides the first income tax rate cut in nearly 20 years. It also makes available more than $225 million to help students – nearly $100 million more than what the governor requested, provides new money and additional flexibility for school districts to address budget shortfalls.
Earlier Sunday, the House sent a supplemental budget bill to the governor’s desk. It contains shared priorities like ensuring safe schools, repairing roads and bridges, tackling the opioid epidemic, protecting aging and vulnerable adults, and preventing a cut to caregivers of disabled Minnesotans.
Bliss said the bills sent to the governor build on a highly successful 2017 session that included the largest tax cut in nearly two decades, the largest investment in roads and bridges in state history without a gas tax increase, major funding boosts for education, and reforms to lower health care costs and boost health care choices for Minnesota families.
The compromise proposals await action by Dayton in the coming days.
-30-