This year’s bonding proposal/cash plan which came out of the House Capital Investment Committee was released today. It includes $914.6 million in projects, $850 million of which will need to be borrowed through the bonding process. The University of Minnesota and MnSCU will both receive money for projects including $56 million to renovate the Tate Laboratory of Physics and $51 million for the Bell Museum and Planetarium. Expansion of civic centers in Rochester, Mankato and St. Cloud will receive funding, as well as renovations to Minneapolis’s Nicollet Mall and St. Paul’s Children’s Museum.  Bridge replacement, local road improvement, land acquisition for trails, and soil and water protection projects are also in the plan. A full accounting of what was approved for the bonding part of the bill and the projects which will be paid for in cash demonstrate the comprehensive statewide plan.

A hearing on the bill is scheduled today during the meeting of the Capital Investment Committee. Bonding bills must have approval from three/fifths of the members of both houses.  The bill has not yet been introduced in the Senate.