On Thursday morning at 8:15 a.m., the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Policy and Finance Committee will hear HF1394, Roseau Republican Representative Dan Fabian's bill to alter the structure and duties of the Citizens Board of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
The meeting may be watched via the MN House's streaming video. [We'll post the YouTube here when it's available after the meeting].
Changes have been sought since August when, for the first time in the history of the agency (going back to its founding in the 1960s), the board asked a large feedlot operation--a dairy in Stevens County--to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) before it could receive a permit. The Board cited concerns raised about groundwater sustainability and manure management acres by Stevens County residents.
As we noted in Minnesota Farmers Union President Doug Peterson defends MPCA Citizens Board, it was clear in a Senate Environment committee overview of the environmental review process that not all rural groups and farmers are unhappy with the Citizens Board.
Chairman McNamara doesn't take money from political action communities or lobbyists, but that doesn't mean he's outside of the sway of Big Ag. As we pointed out at the time when the DNR called for an EAW about water use in pineland-to-potato field conversion, Hot potato politics: Offutt family members gave Representative Denny McNamara campaign cash.
But the Offutts aren't the only ag interests who gave McNamara money last year--indeed, they're pikers compared to the Molitor Brother Farms family contributions.
According to a search of the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board's individual campaign contribution database for political contributions by the Molitors and Thorkelsons, family members gave $12,700 to three candidates: Representative McNamara (R-Hastings); Representative Garofalo (R-Farmington); and Ryan Rutzick, who was defeated by Minnetonka DFLer Jon Applebaum.
Brent Molitor and Rita Molitor made two contributions totaling $700 to Rutzick, while Brian Molitor, Charles Molitor, Heather Molitor, Patrice Molitor, Eric Thorkelson and Sara Thorkelson each gave McNamara and Garofalo $1000, for a total of $6000 each.
According to Ownership interests information online at the EWG Farm Subsidy database, the Thorkelsons and the Molitors (with the exception of Brent) were the owners of Molitor Brothers Farm in 2012. Brent Molitor is employed by the farm, according to information at the Minnesota campaign finance site.
Molitor Brothers Farm received $6,598,926 in USDA subsidies between 1995-2012; the lion's share of this figure ($6,428,949) came from commodity subsidies. Only $125,943 came from conservation programs like the Conservation Reserve Program or EQIP grants; indeed, the operations' payments from these programs shrank to under $3000 per year in 2011 and 2012, while they took in $228,561 and $222,275 from commodity programs.
The 2014 Farm Bill eliminated direct payment programs, although a Molitor family member in the past had told the press that crop subsidies were vital to maintaining the family farm for future generations. In the December 3, 2007 Strib article, Senate to debate farm subsidy cut we read:
. . . . the very idea of income tests and payment limits worries many full-time farmers in Minnesota. The state has harvested more than $9.5 billion from government farm programs over the past decade -- fifth most among all the states.
Among the concerned Minnesotans is Brian Molitor, who represents the fifth generation of a Cannon Falls family farm that now stretches over more than 10,000 acres of corn and soybeans in southeastern Minnesota.
Molitor Bros. Farm, which four families operate, was one of the state's top three recipients of government subsidies in 2005, the latest year for which data is available. It pulled in nearly $1.2 million. [ Editor's note: 2005 marked the high water year for the MBF and the subsidies they received shrank to $222,275 by 2012]
But Molitor, hoping that his children will become the farm's sixth generation, said that without the government money, his farm wouldn't be able to break even some years.
"If you look at the last few years, subsidies have been what's been able to keep people at zero and keep them from losing money," he said. . . .
And here we thought Governor Dayton was generous with commissioner raises.
Do large contributions from large farmers influence the way Chair McNamara votes in committee and on the floor?
As one might guess, Thursday's agenda isn't set simply by one very large family farm. Instead, we need to look at those who helped flip the House and give McNamara the chair of the Environment committee.
Agriculture and ag lobbyist contributions for the HRCC and its allies in the 2013-2014 cycle
As we reported back on February 1 in AgriGrowth Council & friends paint picture of MPCA Citizens' Board as Fifth Plague of Egypt, the coalition of commodity groups and production scale ad advocates had this to say about "reforming" the Citizens Board's powers:
Environmental Regulatory Reform
While other parts of the country are limited by water shortage and the need to import feed, Minnesota has plentiful opportunities with respect to both of these essential elements of a successful livestock operation. Unfortunately, new investment in this industry has been placed at risk due to recent actions by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Citizens’ Board. Beyond the costs and delays of these projects, the recent Citizens’ Board action raises real questions about Minnesota’s willingness to accommodate growth and new investment in the animal agriculture sector. AgriGrowth will be asking the legislature to review the Board’s responsibilities and powers to ensure that Minnesota can become an inviting location for responsible growth and investment in Minnesota’s agricultural sector to provide new economic opportunities for farmers, rural communities, and our entire state.
So what sort of money did Big Ag put on the table to help flip control of the House? In this post, we won't be looking at contributions to individual campaigns, but rather contributions to the HRCC, the MN Job Coalition Legislative Fund and the MN Action Network IE Fund.
We found at least $295,000 in contributions over $10,000 given directly by Big Ag interests to these three committees. With smaller PAC contributions by commodity group and ag law/lobbying entities, the total easily approaches climbs over the $300,000 mark.
These contributions are by no means a complete picture of the political giving--merely that which we can dig out of state-level year-end campaign finance reports. Nor are we suggesting that the getting and spending only occurs on one side. The problem is one of transparency.
Two Davis family members gave a total of $75,000 to the HRCC, the committee's 2013 and 2014 year-end reports reveals. On December 31, 2013, Marty Davis, founder of Cambria, gave $25,000 to the HRCC; months later on October 9, 2014, he threw another $25,000 into the kitty. On September October 8, Mitch Davis of the Davis Family Dairies, contributed $25,000.
Having sold Davisco, the family dairy processing firm, to Canadian co-op giant Agropur in the summer of 2014, the always-generous-to-the-GOP Davises could certainly help out.
As we noted in Fehr factor vs citizen power: so a real discussion happened in a Minnesota House committee:
. . . contribution of at least $45,000 in cold hard campaign cash to the Minnesota state House Republican Campaign Committee (HRCC; year-end report here) by members of the Fehr family, owners of Riverview Dairy. (Some might add in an additional $2500 donated by Mitch Fehr, to make the total rise to $47,500).
Tom Rosen, of Rosen's Diversified and the American Food Group, the nation's 5th largest beef processing company. gave $25,000 in 2013 and $25,000 in 2014, for a total of $50,000 for the cycle. Rosen Diversified gave the Minnesota Action Network IE Fund $50,000 on September 5, 2014.
The Pipestone-area swine and feed operation, New Horizon Feeds, contributed $25,000 to the Minnesota Jobs Coalition on September 26, 2014. As we noted in Hot potato politics: Offutt family members gave Representative Denny McNamara campaign cash, the RD Offutt Company gave the Minnesota Jobs Coalition $50,000 on September 26, 2014.
Rosen's Diversified, Davis Family Dairies, New Horizon Feeds and the RD Offutt Company are all Agri-Growth Council members.
MN Jobs Coalition's Agribusiness Money from the Republican State Leadership Committee?
The Minnesota Jobs Coalition Legislative Fund also received $325,000 from the Republican State Leadership Committee. Although we can't determine if any of the Agribusiness contributions to the RSLC was earmarked for Minnesota, we can discern ag money in the pot.
Kraft Foods gave RSLC a total of $100,000; Kraft maintains a presence in Minnesota's dairy industry with cheese plants in New Ulm and Albany.
Archer Daniels Midland contributed $25,135 to the RSLC in 2014; the food-processing and commodities-trading corporation was founded in Minneapolis and maintains a large presence in the state.
Monsanto gave the RSLC two contributions totaling $25,295.
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