Early this month Minnesota Representative Rod Hamilton (R-Mountain Lake) had been sounding a partisan battle cry about the possibility that agri-fund dollars might be spent on urban projects.
If Senate Jobs, Agriculture and Rural Development Committee chair Dan Sparks (DFL-Austin) has his way, Hamilton can quit fretting about it and get to work.
In Agriculture Committee work takes shape, a column in today's Albert Lea Tribune, Sparks writes:
A top priority will be to protect money in the agri-fund from being raided for non-agricultural proposes as the budget is put together this session. I want to work on strengthening ag education, both through funding to our local K-12 system and by supporting farm business management programs at Minnesota State Colleges and Universities institutions.
Riverland Community College is one of the shining examples of how this program should work. Extensions of farmer-lender mediation and Minnesota Agriculture Education Leadership Council, and cleanup language for the $5 million exemption to the estate tax for farmland that was passed in the last budget should also be addressed.
Bluestem's sources say that no bills have yet been introduced to divert the funds. Sparks' agenda is a good one that's likely to be supported by fellow Austin Democrat and Minnesota House Agriculture Policy Chair Representative Jeanne Poppe.
Let's hope that Hamilton and other rural Republicans start writing some ag-related bills, instead of just sending agrieved letters to the editors of rural newspapers in swing districts won by Democrats in November. Given the demographic shift of power toward the metro area with last year's redistricting, it's important for rural Republicans to abandon partisan campaign-style rhetoric and pull together.
Photo: Pull together.
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