Minnesota Lawyer

This session’s $850 million bonding bill and a $200 million in cash spending is on its way to Gov. Mark Dayton’s desk. It’s unclear if Dayton will ...

1) The House passed an $850 million borrowing bill with an additional $200 million in cash spending early Friday morning, teeing up a Senate vote ...

Lawmakers in the lower chamber passed the infrastructure package – plus $200 million more in supplemental cash appropriations for construction projects – early Friday morning with relatively little debate and strong bipartisan support.

But House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt, R-Crown, said the borrowing plan, which Democrats need eight Republican votes to pass in the House, doesn't currently have GOP support.

Rep. Lyndon Carlson, who chairs the House Ways & Means Committee, said a few provisions in the agriculture and jobs portions of the budget were the most significant hang-ups left.

Lawmakers must still come together on $54 million in education spending.

The House and Senate have agreed to how much they're going to spend on budget areas ranging from health and human services to education as part of a total of $283 million in new spending, according to a Monday news release.

The House overwhelmingly passed a limited measure Friday evening to provide people ailed by certain, strictly defined conditions access to medical marijuana at a small number of distribution sites in the state. After an afternoon of debate, a swath of Republicans joined Democrats in moving the proposal forward 86-39.

Final sector-by-sector targets should ease quick agreement.

The legislation would cut an estimated $103 million in revenue during the current biennium, with an out-biennium tax reduction of $118 million for 2016-2017. An initially slow-moving conference committee, kept many of the House's property tax cut proposals intact, but drifted closer to the Senate tax reduction target.