ST. PAUL, Minn. – Although in a minority in the Minnesota House, Republican members are proceeding with a parliamentary scheme to slow a project to remodel and expand the State Office Building to make room for offices for House members. The party’s House leader, Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, announced plans to declare an urgency that would force a time-consuming review of the project. The delay would trigger a default in financing and run up costs from current $500 million estimates to $730 million. Dumuth’s calculation: If bonds on the project are not paid on schedule, the project could incur an additional $230 million in interest. That, Demuth said, may be too much for Democrats to stomach even though they led the campaign for the project in the 2023 legislative session. Demuth announced her plan with a dozen members of the House GOP caucus. She said her idea is to rechannel funding from the new building into K-12 education programs. Her challenge: Democrats control House 70 to 64. Her ace: A Democratic priority is K-12 initiatives.
Demuth. House minority leader. In last-ditch plan to halt State Office Building project.