This could take a while

I’m feeling vindicated for suggesting the bonding bill was not going to be done as quickly as legislators had hoped. Negotiations are continuing , but I have a feeling there’s not going to be an agreement any time soon. Pawlenty’s opening offer was $685 million, and the DFL’s original bill was $1 billion. Pawlenty then said he could go as high as $725 million, and now a legislative working group has come up with a new bonding proposal:

A capital investment working group approved an offer that brings the bill total down slightly and contains the six core projects identified by the governor. However, the overall cost of the bill does not meet his desired amount.

The working group report calls for nearly $986.43 million in general obligation bonding, a decrease of about $13.5 million from the amount in HF2700*/ SF2360.

At this rate, it’s going to take a long time for the two sides to meet.

I think the implication of the legislature’s response is pretty interesting. By making a much smaller concession than the Governor, they seem to be signaling that they don’t plan on meeting the Governor right in the middle at $842 million, but that they want the final bill to be closed to their original figure than the Governor’s. If the two sides were to keep moving toward a compromise at the same rate as their first moves, they would meet at around $920 million.