Fearless environmental champion state representative Jean Wagenius, DFL-Minneapolis, State Representative Jean Wagenius asks Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton to line-item veto items in the bonding bill that violate state law governing the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund (ENRTF).
Republican leadership attempts to use lottery money to pay bond obligations on wastewater treatment facilities and landfill reclamation. These uses of Trust Fund dollars are not allowed under statute, Wagenius points out in her letter to the governor.
Nor is Wagenius alone in sounding the alarm about the move--outdoors defender and Star Tribune columnist Dennis Anderson raises a hue and cry about the attempted theft in Wednesday's column, Minnesota's Republican leaders have outdoors fund headed in wrong direction.
Here's Wagenius' letter:
2018.05.22 Gov Dayton LCCMR Letter posted by Sally Jo Sorensen on Scribd
Lawmaker and lawyer Wagenius outlines the statutory case against the items, as well as pointing out the violation of the will of Minnesota voters who twice decided that they wanted the money to be spent on--and where they didn't want the money spent.
Anderson also looks to what Minnesotans want:
How clever Kurt Daudt and Paul Gazelka are, the Legislature’s head honchos.
Daudt, the Republican House speaker, and Gazelka, the Republican Senate majority leader, waited until the final hours of the recent legislative session to abscond with money from the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund (ENRTF).
They succeeded. So far.
Recall that Minnesota voters created the state lottery in 1988 by constitutional amendment with the intent of dedicating a significant portion of proceeds to protect and enhance the environment.
Key to lottery money allocation is the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR), which reviews hundreds of proposals each year before submitting a finalist list to the Legislature to be funded by the ENRTF.
For the session just ended, commission members — 17 in all: five from the House, five from the Senate and seven citizens — had $46 million to allot and proposed funding for 67 projects.
Typically, these appropriations glide through the Legislature. And for good reason. The LCCMR process — the seven citizens are volunteers — is deliberative and time consuming. No one would submit willingly to this work knowing in the end legislators would dramatically alter their recommendations.
But not only that ...
In an unprecedented move and contrary to what Minnesota voters approved when they voted for the lottery, legislators this session cooked up a plan for the ENRTF to pay obligations on bonds the state will issue to fund Republicans’ pet lottery-funded projects.
Until now, lottery money has funded environment projects on a pay-as-you-go basis, which leaves the LCCMR flexible as varying threats and needs arise. Example: Most invasive species that today threaten Minnesota waters weren’t on anyone’s radar in 1988.
Now, if the Legislature gets away with its bonding scheme, the ENRTF will be obligated for years ahead to pay for projects approved this year.
What’s more, by reducing funding for projects from amounts proposed by the LCCMR and wiping out other projects entirely, Republicans made a banana-republic-like laughingstock of the appropriation process. . . .
Read the rest at the Star Tribune--then email or call the governor and politely ask for line-item vetoes of provisions in the bonding bill that violate statute and the expressed will of the people of Minnesota.
It's not as if there isn't a legal means to bond for these projects: as Anderson points out "bonding from the more appropriate general fund."
Logo: Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund (ENRTF).
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