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Putting it off until June

In the spirit of “Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow,” the Minnesota Legislature let the current session end Sunday without coming to agreement on a bonding bill. House Republicans voted en masse against the Democrats’ proposed bonding bill on Saturday, and Sunday’s negotiations ran out of steam on the last day of the session.

But there is still time. The Legislature will be called back into a special session on June 12 to consider extending Gov. Tim Walz’s emergency COVID-19 declaration, which gives them nearly a month to come up with a bonding bill that both sides can agree on.

But will they? House Minority Leader Kurth Daudt made it clear during the session that his caucus would not support a bonding bill unless the governor relinquished his emergency powers and started including the Legislature (or is it “Republican legislators”?) in the decision making on the COVID-19 measures. If they can’t have power too, they’re taking their bonding bill votes and going home.

Perhaps the “dialing back” on the current state COVID-19 restrictions that started Monday will lead to more restoration of activities, and Daudt’s mind will be eased enough to support a bonding bill.

With the state’s economy reeling from the COVID-19 restrictions, a bonding bill would be a much-needed stimulus, providing jobs and improvements to our state’s facilities and infrastructure.

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