Today Senate Democrats failed to find bipartisan support to pass a bonding bill off the Senate floor. The bill requires a 3/5 majority vote, which is 41 votes, and required 7 Republican senators to vote for the bill. It failed to garner even one Republican vote.   

“I recently joined Senate Republican leaders and presented a win-win option for Minnesotans still waiting for tax cuts: pass a bonding bill and tax relief,” Senator Bill Weber (R-Luverne), Republican lead of the Senate Taxes Committee, said. “Democrats were well aware of our stance on this, but still, they forced the bonding bill to the floor for a vote. We are now halfway through the legislative session, yet Minnesota taxpayers have not seen any meaningful tax cuts. For this reason, it’s unmistakably the wrong priority to borrow additional taxpayer dollars before our constituents receive their much-needed financial relief. We all recognize the need for a strong bonding bill, and I hope that the Democrats will recognize that we need to meet the needs of all, including our taxpayers. Once they do, it will be much easier to get a bonding bill passed.”

After failing to pass the bonding bill, the Senate immediately voted to reconsider the bill and lay it on the table. This procedural move allows the bill to be brought up again without having to go through the committee process.  

Two weeks ago, Senate Republican Leaders made clear they needed to see movement on tax relief before they voted for a bonding bill. Last week, Republicans attempted to bring a bill to eliminate the tax on Social Security to the floor, which was defeated on a party-line vote. Senate Democrats today brought their own bill to eliminate the tax on Social Security in a procedural vote to move it one step forward. However, Democrats failed to take the bill up for an actual vote that would pass it off the Senate floor and send it to the House for consideration.