Legislative Update: House Releases Bonding Bill

With only five days until the close of the 2016 legislative session, the House released its bonding proposal today (HF 622). In comparison to the Senate bonding proposal that was released two weeks ago, we’re disappointed that the House proposal shortchanges Minnesota’s parks and trails. Like the Senate proposal, the House bill includes the Glacial Lakes Trail and Cuyuna Country SRA, but severely underfunds state park rehabilitation and leaves many other projects completely unfunded. The chart below shows how this year’s bonding proposals compare the our Legislative Agenda.

The House is expected to vote on the bill on Thursday. If it passes, it will be sent to the Senate for consideration. If your project was one of the many not included in the House bill, now is the time call or email the author(s) of your bill. Ask them why their project didn’t make the final cut, and urge them to tell House leadership to include the project in the final bonding bill.

We’ll keep you up-to-date as all the legislative pieces fall into place in the coming days.