Capital Investment Committee refers three vehicle bills to Ways and Means; removes named library grant

The Minnesota House Capital Investment Committee on May 6 voted to refer three vehicle bonding bills — House File 719, House File 2,486 and House File 2,484 (as amended) — to the House Ways and Means Committee and adopted an amendment that deletes the naming of a library construction grant for Mary C. Murphy.

Committee leaders said the committee moved the bills to Ways and Means so they would be available as negotiations continue during the remaining weeks of the 2025 legislative session. Chair Lee told members the Minnesota Management and Budget (MMB) debt-guidelines overview had assumed a $700,000,000 bonding bill for the year and noted the Senate had set a target of $1,350,000,000.

House File 719: Representative Mary Fransen introduced House File 719 as a vehicle bill and the committee voted to refer the measure to Ways and Means. "House file 7 19, vehicle bill," Fransen said when she introduced it, and the motion to refer prevailed by voice vote.

House File 2,486: Chair Franzen described House File 2,486 as another vehicle bill moved to keep bonding options available as negotiations continue. The committee voted to re-refer the measure to Ways and Means by voice vote.

House File 2,484 and A1 amendment: The committee considered House File 2,484, described on the floor as the author’s bill, and adopted an A1 amendment. Committee members were told the A1 amendment "deletes the Mary C Murphy, naming of the library construction grants that we pass off the House floor." After the amendment was adopted by voice vote, the committee re-referred House File 2,484 as amended to Ways and Means.

All three referral motions and the A1 amendment were decided by voice votes in committee; the transcript records members saying "aye" and the chair stating the motions prevailed. No recorded roll-call tallies or recorded objections appear in the committee transcript.

Members used the post-vote time to thank staff, pages and colleagues, and several members emphasized the importance of bonding tours and hearing communities’ infrastructure requests. Chair Lee and co-chairs encouraged members to continue coordinating with local governments and stakeholders as the committee prepares for the final weeks of the session.

The committee also reminded members the MMB portal is open for communities to submit projects for next-year consideration. The committee stated any future meetings this session would be at the call of the chair and then adjourned.