Skip to main content Skip to office menu Skip to footer
Capital IconMinnesota Legislature

HEAPR should be priority

Published (3/2/2012)
By Bob Geiger
Share on: 



Although the amount of capital investment allocations are unknown, the House Higher Education Policy and Finance Committee recommended Feb. 28 that the bulk of bonding dollars the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system and the University of Minnesota do receive should go toward asset preservation and replacement.

Officials from MnSCU and the university emphasized higher education asset preservation and replacement projects in capital budget requests made before the committee in late January and early February. MnSCU’s $278.7 million capital investment request includes $110 million for HEAPR, or 39.5 percent of its total. The university’s HEAPR request of $90 million represents 43 percent of its $209.1 million capital investment request.

In his bonding proposal, Gov. Mark Dayton recommended $20 million in HEAPR for both the university and MnSCU, a number that Committee Chairman Rep. Bud Nornes (R-Fergus Falls) deemed “insufficient” saying they should be funded “at the highest amount possible.”

According to the committee, any extra money designated for higher education should then go toward project priorities that have been established by MnSCU and the university.

Session Weekly More...


Session Weekly Home



Related Stories


System funding decreases
Higher education law cuts $351 million from base funding
(view full story) Published 8/11/2011

Serving more with less
Collegiate funding plan gets failing grade from the governor
(view full story) Published 7/15/2011

Brain-drain concerns
Tuition increase could be offset by state grant increases in higher education finance bill
(view full story) Published 5/20/2011

Collegiate concerns conveyed
Omnibus higher education finance bill approved by House
(view full story) Published 4/1/2011

Mixed grades given to college proposal
Omnibus higher education bill gets mixed reception from members
(view full story) Published 3/25/2011

At Issue: Reading, writing, arithmetic redo
Growing academic remediation rate troubles lawmakers
(view full story) Published 2/11/2011

Minnesota Index: Higher education
Figures and statistics on higher education in Minnesota
(view full story) Published 1/21/2011