Anoka Times

Minnesota House Rep. John Heinrich (R-Anoka) said he does not support a $1.37 billion bond bill passed by the House and Senate because the bill is not fully paid for.

“This bill is unacceptable when we are facing a multi-billion dollar deficit this coming biennium and an even bigger deficit down the road,” Heinrich said on his Facebook page. “Instead of working collaboratively to find a bill that we can pay for, Democrats refused to negotiate to find a solution.”

The bond legislation is meant to pay for infrastructure improvements across the state including roads, bridges, wastewater facilities and higher education institutions.

The bill, SSHF1, proceeded to the State Senate where it passed on Oct. 16 to become the biggest public works bill in the state’s history.

A report in the Star Tribune said Republicans in the House had expressed concerns about the new spending and the cost of the debt service of the bonds given a predicted deficit made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. They complained the bill was full of “pork,” spending provisions not agreed upon by leaders in the two chambers.

Despite this, 25 Republican House members voted with Democrats to OK it.       

“While I worked hard to get our local projects included in the bill, I could not vote for a bill that isn’t fully paid for and would make our budget crisis worse,” Heinrich said. “This is no time to be running up the balance on the state’s credit card when we can’t even pay the bills we have now.”