The $100 million requested in bonding dollars by the Homes for All alliance remains well-positioned after Wednesday’s passage of two bills through the House Capital Investment Committee. These two bills represent the House version of the bonding bill that will now travel to the Ways and Means committee.

House Capital Investment Committee Chair Alice Hausman divided the $100 million bonding request between the two larger bills, one totaling $850 million to be funded by bonds, and one totaling $125 million to be funded by cash appropriations.

• H.F. 2490 (Omnibus Capital Investment Bill) contains $20 million in Government Obligation (GO) bonds for public housing rehab
• H.F. 1068 (Appropriations Bill) contains $80 million in Housing Infrastructure Bonds (to be funded by cash)

Although there were no particular challenges to the housing portions of the bills, Representative Matt Dean, the Minority Lead on the Capital Investment Committee, did propose a “delete all” amendment, citing the need to abide by the $850 million capital investment cap agreed to by some legislative leaders last session, and the need for more Republican input into the prioritization of projects. Specifically, he recommended carrying forward projects that were not funded last year. In response, Vice-Chair Ward quoted Chair Hausman, stating that even at $975 million, the current bills are not adequate to meet the capital investment needs of Minnesota. The delete-all amendment did not pass.

The Senate version of the bonding bill remains under wraps. We don’t expect to see that version until after the Easter/Passover break.

Meanwhile, in a symbolic showing of support for bonding for housing, the original Homes for All bonding bill proposal (now rolled into the above bills) picked up several more co-authors in the House including Representatives Paymar, Huntley, Marquart, and Hamilton, bringing the total number of House co-authors to 33. MHP and Homes for All are grateful for this tremendous support!