Yesterday 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 gain even one favorable Republican vote.

“Senate Republicans have supported bonding in the past, and will do so again, we just simply want tax relief to come with it,” said Senator Andrew Lang (R-Olivia). “There are a lot of local projects in that bill—projects I’ve been advocating for, but we want to ensure folks across the state are also getting the tax relief that was promised to them. We will pass a bonding bill, but the Democrats also need to be mindful of the needs of everyday Minnesotans. With a $17.5 billion surplus, there’s no reason we can’t do both.”

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 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 yesterday 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.