With just weeks left in the legislative session, a roughly $1 billion public infrastructure borrowing proposal is seeing discussion at the Minnesota Capitol. But whether the bill will cross the finish line in time is unclear.

A capital investment proposal from DFL House lawmakers calls for hundreds of millions for universities and colleges, prisons, transportation and improvements at the state Capitol.

In even-numbered years borrowing for projects like those is typically one of the top orders of business at the Legislature. But with just weeks left of session and limited Republican appetite for more borrowing, it’s unclear how many projects will get funding, or if the bill will pass.

Minority Republicans want a smaller bonding bill, and since borrowing needs a supermajority the DFL will need their support. Republicans have not yet put forward a bonding proposal of their own.

What’s in the House DFL bonding bill?

As it stands, most of the $980 million bonding bill is for statewide infrastructure projects. Another $39 million or so in a separate but related bill is from the general fund. It’s near the size of the bonding proposal Gov. Tim Walz pitched in January.

A little more than $300 million is set aside for local projects in lawmakers’ districts, and would be split up as the bonding proposal moves forward.

House lawmakers have been holding hearings on the proposal this week and plan to hold a committee vote on Wednesday.

Top spending areas include:

• $114 million for improvements at state prisons.

• $64 million for asset preservation at both the University of Minnesota and Minnesota State Colleges and Universities.

• $48 million for public safety, with most going to a Bureau of Criminal Apprehension regional office and crime lab in Mankato.

• $45.7 million for transportation, $37.7 million of which will go to major local bridge replacement and rehabilitation.

• $31 million for improvements at the State Capitol, including an upgraded tunnel to the state office building currently under renovation for half a billion dollars.

• $28.9 million for the Department of Veterans Affairs, including $16 million for renovations of the Minneapolis Veterans Home.

Will it get through?

While DFLers control the Senate, House and the governor’s office, they need a three-fifths supermajority in both chambers to pass borrowing bills – meaning they’ll need GOP backing.

“House Republicans remain open to a bonding bill but the content matters,” Minority Leader Lisa Demuth said in a statement, adding that her caucus wants to be responsible with borrowing after significantly grew spending last year.

During last year’s session, Walz and the DFL majorities in control of state government passed significant legislation, including a new $72 billion two-year budget that grew spending by about 40%.

Bonding is one of the few bargaining tools minority Republicans have with the majority DFL. Last year, Republicans got the DFL to support $300 million in aid for struggling nursing homes in exchange for their support on a $2.6 billion infrastructure bill that included $1.5 billion in borrowing.

So with Republicans already signaling they’re not interested in significant new borrowing, the lead House DFL representative on bonding is acknowledging the bill might have to shrink to move forward.

“As we move forward with a smaller target to reach consensus, I think that there will be further disappointment with some of the items that are in here that may have to be cut,” said House Capital Investment Committee Chair Fue Lee, DFL-Minneapolis.

A tighter bill this year comes after lawmakers passed a $2.6 billion bonding package in the 2023 session. Then, the state had a $18 billion budget surplus, allowing bigger, bolder proposals to move forward.

Now, with the state facing a budget shortfall in the next four years if lawmakers don’t keep spending to a minimum, that’s not going to be the case.

“This is a very difficult process, it was a hard process last year when we were basically raining money,” said Rep. Dean Urdahl, R-Grove City, the lead Republican on the Capital Investment Committee.

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A St. Paul man has pleaded guilty to fatally shooting his wife at the couple’s home in 2021, telling police at the time he became angry when she didn’t take his concerns over their daughter seriously.

Johnny Ray Aldridge, 49, entered the plea Monday to second-degree intentional murder of 41-year-old Caitlin Aldridge. A trial was set to begin that day in Ramsey County District Court.

As part of a plea deal, prosecutors agreed to seek a sentence at the low end of state guidelines, which carry a minimum of nearly 21 years in prison. His attorneys can argue for a downward departure at sentencing, which is scheduled for June 28.

Aldridge has been civilly committed as mentally ill since 2022 and is currently at Anoka-Metro Regional Treatment Center, according to court records. He was found to be competent to stand trial in March 2023.

A call to his public defender for comment was not returned Tuesday.

Caitlin Aldridge grew up on St. Paul’s West Side and graduated from Cretin-Derham Hall in 1998 and University of Minnesota-Morris four years later, her obituary says. She worked on the youth programs team at the YWCA of Minneapolis, where she “built lasting friendships with her colleagues and young people.”

“Caitlin, known to most as Casey, was quietly tenacious, dedicated and deeply kind,” her obituary says.

Unfounded concerns

Johnny Aldridge went to the Ramsey County Law Enforcement Center about 3 a.m. Sept. 28, 2021, and called 911, saying that he had killed his wife at their home in the 30 block of Winnipeg Avenue on St. Paul’s North End, according to the criminal complaint. Officers took him into custody without incident.

They found a firearm in his vehicle’s console, and Aldridge told officers it was the gun he used to shoot his wife of 11 years.

Officers found Caitlin Aldridge dead in an upstairs bedroom of the home. She had a gunshot wound to her head.

The couple’s 13-year-old daughter was home, but had slept through the incident. Police led her out of the home, shielding her from the crime scene.

Throughout interviews, Johnny Aldridge appeared to be obsessed with claims that people were trying to harm his daughter, police said. He believed his wife was somehow involved.

Johnny Ray Aldridge (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

Aldridge told police that when he expressed his concerns to his wife, she laughed.

His wife’s “response angered Aldridge so much he shot her once in the back of the head with the gun he kept beneath his pillow,” the complaint states.

Investigators learned that Aldridge’s concerns over their daughter were unfounded.

The daughter told police Aldridge had PTSD and hadn’t been himself since he had been shot in the hand in June. He and a friend reported they were sitting in Aldridge’s garage when they saw someone shooting out the window of a passing vehicle, according to a police report. It appeared that a neighbor’s house was possibly the target, police said.

After that, he began carrying a gun, acting scared and leaving home for periods of time. He left twice during the summer, the complaint states. The daughter said he would get mad easily and that it had been hard on her mother because they had been fighting over small things the past few days, the complaint states.

Police records show Aldridge had called 911 twice on July 24 with unfounded emergencies, and an operator indicated at the time that he was possibly “a person in crisis.” He called saying he thought his wife was tracking his phone and that she was with someone who was trying to kill him. He called later, saying he believed someone might be inside the house who had kidnapped his wife.

Court records show Johnny Aldridge has been convicted of traffic violations, including eight for driving with a suspended or revoked license.

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“Programs and policies to facilitate intra-state transfers of asylum-seekers would be a win-win, both for small cities that need an injection of people and economic drawing power, and for large cities that have traditionally been a magnet for immigrants and refugees, but are currently overwhelmed by the influx of new arrivals.”

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City spending on immigrants and asylum seekers will be a focal point for upcoming deliberations on the city’s fiscal year 2025 budget. As reported in Daniel Parra’s March 6 City Limits article, the city’s Asylum Seeker Funding Tracker reports that, as of January, “…the city has opened 216  emergency shelter sites and spent approximately $3.77 billion on efforts to shelter newly arrived immigrants.”

Clearly, the city and state cannot sustain this level of financial support indefinitely. But focusing on dollars risks ignoring the importance of strategic relationships that could be an important part of the solution.

Data consistently shows a positive economic impact in big cities with high concentrations of immigrants and refugees. The impact on small and mid-sized cities—places like Akron in Ohio and Lewiston in Maine—are often overlooked. But what about closer to home?

Using data from the most recent American Community Survey, the Census Bureau projects that, with the exception of the Albany-Schenectady-Troy Capital District, every region of New York State has had a net loss of population since the 2020 Census. If not for the substantial in-migration of people from other places, the state would have had even greater population loss.

With a total population of about 65,000, Utica sits at the foot of the Adirondack Mountains in Mohawk Valley, about 250 miles northwest of New York City. Once a manufacturing hub, it began losing population in the mid-1900s and by the 70s was a city in steep decline, having lost a third of its population and much of its job base.

About that time, a local nonprofit organization, the Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees, became known as a place where other non-governmental organizations could refer refugees from southeast Asia for services and help resettling in upstate New York. The Center’s constituents soon expanded to include people from the former Soviet Union, Bosnia, and other war-ravaged places. Now it helps resettle families from Afghanistan and Ukraine.

Today, one out of every four Utica residents is a resettled refugee, the population is  growing, and whole neighborhoods have been revitalized. The city is experiencing the best kind of economic growth: the kind that’s not dependent on a handful of large corporations that can pick up and leave for cheaper wages and sunnier climates. Utica’s job growth is partly driven by a diverse and dense network of small businesses (many of them started by entrepreneurial-minded refugees), along with larger employers who are attracted by the stability of its working age population.

Programs and policies to facilitate intra-state transfers of asylum-seekers would be a win-win, both for small cities that need an injection of people and economic drawing power, and for large cities that have traditionally been a magnet for immigrants and refugees, but are currently overwhelmed by the influx of new arrivals.

The mayor and governor should jointly assign a senior level point person to start conversations with public officials in small cities where population and jobs are shrinking and if interested, work with them to pressure Washington D.C. for money and to smooth bureaucratic snafus like work authorizations. Recruit prominent small city business leaders for their vocal (and financial) support. Work with local chambers of commerce and religious leaders. Those who are reluctant to engage due to fear of anti-immigrant backlash can step aside, and let creative, forward-thinking leaders step in.

The best place to start this relationship-building is with effective and trusted community  organizations. One example is in the works: the Arc of Chemung-Schuyler and the Community Foundation of Elmira-Corning and the Finger Lakes are floating a pilot program that would resettle a small number of asylum-seeker families from New York City to Watkins Glen, with appropriate services and support. Groups like the Arc are the on-the-ground partners who will make it work.

Fortunately, recognizing that statewide networks are essential for getting anything done in Albany, a few New York City-based nonprofits have done a good job of connecting with like-minded groups upstate. These groups, like Make the Road, NY Immigration Coalition, VOCAL, and others, can help connect Mayor Eric Adams’ top advisors to groups throughout our vast state.

Transformations like these won’t happen overnight. It will take sustained effort and significant investments in people and infrastructure. But while waiting for Congress to get its act together, we can get started now on these and other important first steps towards long-term solutions.

Patricia Swann is an independent consultant. She anchored grantmaking for the New York Community Trust in the areas of community development, affordable housing, civic affairs, and nonprofit capacity-building for more than 20 years. She is a member of the GoVoteNYC Advisory Committee, former chair of the New York State Census Equity Fund, and former co-chair of the Change Capital Fund.