Dorman urgs lawmakers to turn down political rhetoric over bonding

By Brad Swenson

Pioneer Staff Writer

      House Republicans would accept higher education bonding projects already in a bill, including Bemidji State University’s project, the House’s lead GOP negotiator said Thursday.

But House Capital Investment Chairman Dan Dorman, R-Albert Lea, also wants both parties to back down from political rhetoric.

      Rep. Frank Moe, DFL-Bemidji, and Sen. Carrie Ruud, R-Breezy Point, testified Wednesday in support of Bemidji bonding projects before the conference committee hammering out differences between House and Senate bonding bills.

      The House-approved bill with $781 million of borrowing doesn’t include any projects for Bemidji while the Senate’s $975 million bill includes all but $19 million for a BSU hockey arena. It provides $10.8 million for a BSU/Northwest Technical College academic expansion and $900,000 for Paul Bunyan Trail work in Bemidji.

      The House, under Republican control, included all the projects and the hockey arena in its 2004 bill, but strips them out this year. Moe defeated three-term incumbent Rep. Doug Fuller, R-Bemidji, last November.

      Dorman said in a telephone interview Thursday that he offered to include all Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system and University of Minnesota projects that were in one bill or the other to help break the logjam.

      “We’ve got $40 million worth of stuff in our bill that (the Senate) has no position on,” Dorman said, adding the Senate bill has $90 million in MnSCU and University projects not in the House bill.

      Dorman said if Senate Capital Investment Chairman Keith Langseth, DFL-Glyndon, agreed to the House’s borrowing figure, the House would accept all the higher ed projects. Then, the rest of the bill would be subject to negotiating.

      Apparently, Langseth had some qualms about that, Dorman said.

      Dorman said he believed House Republicans made a valid offer, and disputed Moe’s characterization that House Republicans were holding firm to its lower list.

      “The people who were supporting the bigger bill are the Senate Republicans, the Senate Democrats and the House Democrats,” Moe said in an interview Wednesday. “`The House Republicans are the ones who are arguing for a smaller bill.”

      “I’m confused on why Moe is saying that,” Dorman said. “Not necessarily” are Republicans pushing a smaller bill. “If someone tells us where we’re going to get the debt service, I don’t think that argument of a smaller bill is an unrealistic question to ask. The more money you need for debt service, the less money you have for other items.”

      Traditionally, the Legislature has held debt service on bonding to 3 percent of the state budget. That would put a bonding bill at $1.2 billion at the upper limits, but Dorman said that would include any bonding approved in 2006 also.

      “I’ve heard people say we ought to make sure we’re very close to the 3 percent number by the time we get done with both bills,” he said. As a result, Dorman anticipates bonding bills that will borrow $890 million this year and $765 million next year.

      He’s asked Langseth to work on a bill that borrows $925 million, while the House will set a $875 million bill, from there earnest negotiating can continue.

      “Just getting both sides in that range takes a lot of work because of different priorities, even at that level.” Dorman said.

      Dorman said the bill probably will include the BSU/Northwest Tech project and funding for the Paul Bunyan Trail, but support isn’t there for the hockey arena. Also, he said he has problems with Senate funding for the Big Bog State Recreation Area and a Red Lake Reservation school project.

      “I have tried to find the middle ground on the (BSU Bridgeman Hall renovation) for a long time, but the more people politicize it, the harder it is to get something done,” he said. “On the trail, the connector piece, personally I’ve believed for a long time in the parks and trails position to give (the city) $500,000 for acquisition and let the city deal with it. … I’m sympathetic, we just have to figure out how to get it done.”

      He noted that Fuller was able to include the BSU hockey arena in last year’s bill.

      “The hockey arena wasn’t in the Senate bill last year and it isn’t in the Senate bill this year,” Dorman said. “So if they’ve got a $1 billion bill and they don’t have room for it, how big would that bill have to be before they even rank it as a good project? … That’s a project that a person who spent six years of his life fighting for a hockey arena--he ain’t here. It’s going to take somebody else a long time to fight for a project such as that.”

      That’s the case with any large project, he said, noting that Minneapolis has fought for at least eight years for a new planetarium.

      Not in the House bill is $1.6 million for a visitors’ center at the Big Bog park in Waskish. “I get conflicting signals from the DNR and other people as to what they really want there,” Dorman said.

      The Senate bill, and also Gov. Tim Pawlenty, has $24 million for Red Lake Middle School improvements as part of ongoing school improvement projects.

      “I struggle (that) we have a whole school district with 1,500 kids, and you’ve got 300 in the middle school, and you’re talking about a $12 million to $15 million middle school,” he said “The numbers just don’t add up. … I was involved in getting a high school passed in Albert Lea and we built a brand new high school for 1,000 kids for about $22 million.”

      Pawlenty and the Department of Education both call the project a priority, Dorman admits. “They feel it is a state obligation, and I don’t disagree with them.”

      Dorman hopes the next conference committee meeting will be held Tuesday, but wants both parties to back off.

      “If it’s Carrie Ruud, or Frank, or me or Sen. Langseth, or whoever gets it done, if people would just not worry so much about, at least right now, for taking credit for getting something done or pushing the blame for something, it’s easier to get it done,” Dorman said.

      “Try to tone the rhetoric down because that just doesn’t help us get to where we want to be,” he said.