North Dakota Senate Majority Leader Rich Wardner (R-Dickinson) would like to see some enhancements to the bonding bill the House passed.
The House version is $680 million, with the vast majority of that going towards big water projects, such as the FM Diversion and Mouse River flood control.
Wardner said he fully supports the money for those projects. But he has more in-mind for bonding, now that the Senate has the bill.
"We're going to take a look at the education money coming in from the COVID relief, to see if it can be utilized for Career and Technical Education," Wardner said in an interview. "If not, it'll be in the bonding bill."
Wardner said there is a need for more money for highways and bridges. And he said more money is needed for townships.
"You have townships out in the middle and the easter part of the state that are being inundated with water," Wardner said. "They need help."
Wardner said there may be other infrastructure needs, such money for state buildings. He said it should be focused on projects the state was already planning to do.
"You don't want to thrown new stuff in there that we weren't really going to do," Wardner said. "It's gotta be things that we were going to do anyway."
Wardner said with the interest rates on bonds lower than the inflation rate, it is a good time to bond for those projects.
