Legislature punts on bonding and transportation.

Byline: Brian Johnson

Transportation advocates and supporters of an off-year bonding bill are in wait-until-next-year mode after walking away from the 2019 legislative session empty-handed.

Gov. Tim Walz and the Legislature agreed to a $48 billion two-year budget before the special legislative session ended early Saturday morning, but lawmakers couldn't find enough common ground to take action on transportation funding or a plan to sell bonds for public works projects.

Late in the session, the governor and Republican leaders announced a global budget deal that offered $500 million in general obligation bonds for public works construction. In the end, the clock ran out on bonding, which requires a two-thirds "super-majority" in the House.

"Although a $500 million bonding bill would've been a nice cherry on top of the legislative sessions, historically there is an appetite to save larger infrastructure bills for the second year of the biennium," Laura Ziegler, director of government affairs for the Associated General Contractors of Minnesota, said in an email.

"It became clear at the end of the regular session, and then special session, that a bonding package in a budget year was not going to garner the necessary super-majority votes within the looming deadline," she added.

Bonding supporters had reason to be hopeful in February, when Walz released a$1.27 billion bondingrecommendation. GOP leaders balked at the size of the governor's ask. Large bonding bills are usually reserved for even-numbered years.

Similarly, Walz proposed to raise the gas tax by 20 cents per gallon over four years to help pay for $7.3 billion worth of transportation improvements during the biennium. But the gas tax idea fell flat at a time when the state was looking at a $1 billion surplus.

Margaret Donahoe, executive director of the Minnesota Transportation Alliance, said she's disappointed that the session didn't produce additional transportation money beyond what was dedicated in 2017.

"Unfortunately, we got caught up in the debate about raising taxes when there's a surplus, or not raising the gas tax. At the end of the day, they didn't do either raise the gas tax or use the surplus for roads and bridges," Donahoe said.

Bonding and transportation weren't the only issues of interest to the construction industry. During the session, the Legislature also considered bills related to retainage, wage theft and prevailing wage.

Retainage refers to a state law that allows...