Hours after the Minnesota Legislature failed to pass a bill to fund public construction projects before adjourning early Tuesday morning, dozens of members Minnesota building trades unions — decked out in orange safety vests and yellow hard hats — lined up on the state Capitol Mall to plead with Gov. Tim Walz and legislative leaders to return for another special session and finally approve a bonding bill.
Some suggested they could do it during a likely special session in August.
Sorry, Walz said just an hour later. “We can’t do it in August.”
Why not? Because, he said, it would mess up the state’s plan to sell bonds next month to finance construction projects that were previously authorized by the Legislature and are now ready to go.
And after that, most of the 201 lawmakers will be preoccupied with campaigning for re-election. “It would be difficult to get it (passing a bonding bill) done before the election,” the governor said.
As a result, Minnesota will miss a chance to create an estimated 12,000 construction jobs in the foreseeable future, Jessica Looman, executive director of the Minnesota Building and Construction Trades Council, said at the Capitol rally.
“It’s not just disappointing. It’s disgusting,” added Jason George, business manager of Operating Engineers Local 49.
Advocates for the hundreds of projects that would have been funded by the $1.8 billion infrastructure bill shared the construction workers’ frustration. So did Walz.
The Democratic governor blamed House Republicans, who refused to vote for a bonding bill unless Walz agreed to rescind some of the emergency powers he has employed to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. In recent weeks, he and House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt, R-Crown, attempted to negotiate a compromise that would clear the way for the bonding bill, but they didn’t get it done.
In announcing Monday morning that House Republicans would not support the bill without concessions by Walz, Daudt said, “If we don’t get it done now, we’ll be back in a month.”
The governor likely will call lawmakers back in August to extend his emergency powers for another 30 days, but not to pass a bonding bill.
Earlier Tuesday, House Speaker Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, agreed with Walz. Not only would funding construction projects next month jeopardize the planned bond sale, she said, but politics would interfere. “It may be much more difficult to get along and get things done as we move into the heat of the campaign season.”
The special session likely would occur immediately after the Aug. 11 state primary election and just days before the Democratic and Republican national conventions.
So for now, the prospects for launching a massive public construction program anytime soon look murky, at best.