On the Minnesota Senate Floor today, Democrats forced a premature vote on a bonding bill, ignoring Republican insistence that the two parties work together to pass tax relief before moving forward with a bonding bill.

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. 

Senator Mark Koran (R-North Branch) issued the following statement:

“I’ve been clear about this from the start: we need to provide serious, meaningful relief to Minnesotans before doing a bonding bill. We have a $19 billion surplus, and many people are still struggling with inflation. I support smart bonding for critical projects and expect we will pass a bonding bill this session, but our main goal right now has to be giving tax relief to folks who badly need it. If Democrats are willing to work with us in good faith, I think we can pass both bills.”

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.