Minnesota Report
We spoke with Sen David Senjem (R-25, Rochester) regarding HF1 Omnibus bonding bill and inquired as to the likelihood of a passage during the 5th Special Session. He explained how he had initiated talks two weeks back with both the Senate Leadership Sens Paul Gazelka (R-09, Nisswa), Michelle Benson (R-31, Ham Lake) Minority Lead Sandy Pappas (DFL-65, St Paul), House Speaker Melissa Hortman (DFL-36B, Brooklyn Park) and Reps Mary Murphy (DFL-03B, Hermantown) Chair of the Capital Investment Division and Dean Urdahl (R-18A, Grove City) Republican Lead in order to get a bill ready for passage.
In its final form, it will be $1.365-1.367 Billion with $700 million for transportation, $290 million for waste water treatment, $90 million for HEAPR (Higher Education Differed Maintenance) $38.5 for the UMN and $46.3 for MNSCU.
It is unclear whether or not House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt (R-31A, Crown will support the bill even though it contains a project for Zimmerman in his district, but Senjem believes Urdahl has wrangled the six votes necessary. Senjem did express some concern as to what will happen in the other chamber, “The biggest mystery is if the House of Representatives puts up enough votes to pass this,” clearly referring to his Republican colleagues.
The reason the House had to wait three days is because they were not able to secure the 15 votes needed to suspend the Constitution and the Rules for the ability to expedite the process by declaring an emergency.
Although, he did sound optimistic when we asked how this all came together Senjem said, “It got this far because we created a document. We did the work. We did the horse trading. We did the heavy-lifting. We got the package and I’m pretty sure we’ve got the votes.”