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St. Paul, Minn.

Senate bill bets on university research labs

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(AP) The University of Minnesota's bid to build six new biomedical research laboratories over 10 years won the approval of a Senate committee on Monday.

The Senate Capital Investment Committee endorsed a bill that would establish a special borrowing authority and give the school a leg up in the annual scramble for construction dollars.

The bill creates a new state biomedical facilities research authority that would have the power to borrow money by selling state bonds to finance construction and furnishing of labs.

"It's a commitment to compete with other states and countries around the world for the most advanced biomedical research facilities," University of Minnesota President Robert Bruininks said.

The authority is included in a $306.6 million capital projects bill that would pay for construction across the state. The planned Central Corridor transit line between Minneapolis and St. Paul, arena renovations in Duluth and St. Cloud and upgrades at the Oak Park Heights prison are among the projects that would receive funding.

The Senate plan would spend slightly more than a House version in line for a vote Tuesday, and both would authorize far more borrowing than Gov. Tim Pawlenty had recommended.

In the past two years, lawmakers have authorized $1 billion bonding bills.

"In most cases, I told people to come back next year," Senate Capital Investment Chairman Keith Langseth, DFL-Glyndon, said.

The bill allocates $14.4 million to the university to renovate an existing building on the Minneapolis campus into a biomedical science research lab, the second of six labs the university wants built by 2016. In 2006, the Legislature appropriated $40 million to build the first $60 million lab in the plan.

The provision that would let a board approve future borrowing on the university's behalf hasn't seen much movement in the House. Some leaders in that chamber are uncomfortable with putting the university first in line for state public works projects and having that money count against Minnesota's bonding limit for other facilities.