On the Minnesota Senate Floor Thursday, 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 Steve Drazkowski (R-Mazeppa) issued the following statement:

“I have been working hard to make sure the Goodhue regional wastewater project gets funding, and I expect that it will this session. But I voted against this bonding bill because Democrats’ priorities are completely out of whack. Minnesotans have been overtaxed by $19 billion, yet Democrats’ first item of fiscal business is to put more money on the state’s credit card.

“Republicans are standing up for overtaxed, hard-working Minnesotans. We have a $19 billion surplus and hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Minnesotans, struggling to afford daily life. Tax cuts must come first.”

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 refused 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.