Pawlenty signs $1 billion bonding bill

(AP) - Construction crews, start your engines.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Thursday signed a $999.9 million public works bill into law, giving the thumbs-up to projects ranging from new university buildings to local bridge repairs.

Projects in line for funds include the Northstar Commuter rail line, an expanded sex offender lockup in Moose Lake, a bigger Faribault prison, a medical bioscience building at the University of Minnesota and expanded science facilities at Minnesota State University Mankato.

Pawlenty signed the bill at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management, which will get $26.6 million for an expansion. He highlighted the bill's spending on college and university buildings, which added up to $307 million.

"The bonding bill was reflective of the overall session - it was completed on time and with bipartisan cooperation," the Republican governor said in a prepared statement.

He signed the bill a second time at a park-and-ride facility in Elk River - site of a future Northstar stop. The bonding bill sends $60 million to the $307 million transit line from Big Lake to Minneapolis, in what Pawlenty said would be the final state payment.

Last year's bonding bill funneled $37.5 million to the project. The Northstar line is projected to start operating in 2009, serving some 5,600 commuters.

The bonding bill also contains money for water projects, parks and trails, housing for the homeless, infrastructure for a steel plant in Itasca County, a bioscience center in Rochester and event centers in Marshall and Bemidji.

The state borrows money to pay for the projects, backing most of the loans with its general fund taxes.

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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