Bonding Tour Brings Lawmakers to Downtown St. Cloud, Future CentraCare Medical School

(KNSI) – A dozen bipartisan lawmakers toured the St. Cloud area as local leaders asked for funding to help pay for local projects.

The group took a tour of downtown St. Cloud, visited the future home of the CentraCare Medical School, The Ledge Amphitheater in Waite Park, and heard presentations from St. Cloud State University, St. Augusta and the youth shelter 180 Degrees on Wednesday afternoon. Minnesota is considering borrowing anywhere from one to two billion to dole out to communities across the state during the 2024 legislative session.

KNSI News spoke with House Capital Investment Chair Fue Lee after the day wrapped up. “It’s very important for us to consider the impact that the state can make when we look at an investment. I think that it’s crucial for us to take this back and see what can we do to help out these local communities.”

The largest ask came from St. Cloud. The city wants $100 million to better connect the east and west sides of downtown St. Cloud, the downtown area with SCSU and CentraCare Hospital, make it easier to get from downtown to Lake George and redevelop land along the Mississippi River and elsewhere in the heart of the city. DFL Representative Dan Wolgamott spoke with KNSI and said his top priority will be helping St. Cloud’s downtown. “We get a good bang for our buck when we invest in bonding bills. This bill that we’re putting forward, the 100 million dollars for downtown St. Cloud, is going to spur over $1 billion in public investment. I can’t think of a better use of our hard-earned taxpayer dollars.”

Local Republican Representative Bernie Perryman talked exclusively with KNSI and said if you put all the numbers to the side, the most important project is downtown revitalization. “It’s kind of like, does the chicken or the egg come first? We need to revitalize that downtown. So people want to start coming back. So, everything we looked at today, we really do need a strong downtown St. Cloud.”

Another important stop was at the future home of the CentraCare Medical School. The healthcare group is asking for $12.9 million to turn an administrative building adjacent to CentraCare Plaza into a school. The project got $10 million last year from the Minnesota Department of Higher Education to develop programming and $5 million to design the school.

The Ledge is asking for $5.5 million to expand parking around the venue and build another set of bathrooms. SCSU is asking for help revamping its education building and other improvements. St. Augusta is looking to upgrade its water system.

The Minnesota Legislature begins on February 12th, 2024.

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