While Minnesota Public Radio's headline, Legal fight over environmental fund leaves cities in limbo, suggests that listeners' sympathies should be with those poor municipalities, what's not clear is that legislative relief is already drafted to address the issue.
UPDATE: On October 22, Rep. Rick Hansen, DFL-S. St. Paul, sent out a press release about the bill, Rep. Rick Hansen proposes legislation to fix Republicans’ constitutionally dubious environmental appropriations.
With the Minnesota House returning to DFL control, Hansen will chair the House Environment and Natural Resources Finance Committee; at the time when the press release was sent to Minnesota media, he was the minority lead for the committee. Yep: more than the tweet MPR mentions in the article.
We're even more curious why lobbyists and the Republican Senate environmental chair are consulted for the story, but not the state representative who didn't simply tweet about the issue (and where's that tweet itself, one wonders). MPR listeners expect to be better informed than this. [END UPDATE]
Kirsti Marohn writes:
. . . But the conservation groups argue that tapping the trust fund sets a dangerous precedent. They say they're worried it could open the door for state lawmakers to access other constitutionally dedicated funds, including the ones created by the Legacy Amendment approved by voters in 2008 for the arts and outdoors, for projects that stretch their constitutional definitions.
One state legislator, DFL Rep. Rick Hansen of South St. Paul, tweeted earlier this month that he will author a bill to undo the Legislature's use of the lottery funds.
It's more than a tweet from Hansen, who will chair the Minnesota House Environment and Natural Resources Finance Committee come January. In his December 18, 2018 Legislative Update, Hansen wrote:
Last legislative session, in a constitutionally dubious move, the Republican-controlled Legislature raided proceeds from the Minnesota State Lottery, constitutionally-dedicated to protect our clean air and water for other projects in the bonding bill (I voted against this bill). This money, within the Environmental and Natural Resources Trust Fund, should go toward protecting our public lands, waters and air. Several organizations have even sued the state as a result of this.
I’ve drafted a bill to largely correct this action. The legislation would convert the trust fund appropriation bonds to state General Obligation bonds. The bill also repeals the provisions related to the appropriation bonding and the statutory changes made to the trust fund law. It leaves alone a provision requiring the Public Facilities Authority to report to the legislature on funding needs for Wastewater Infrastructure Funding (WIF) and Point Source Implementation Grants - an expanded version of a requirement that is also earlier in the law.
You can see a copy of the bill here.
As Hansen noted on Facebook when sharing the MPR story on Friday, he's ready to introduce the bill.
Here's a pdf of the bill--underlined passages indicate where language to change statutes is added, and strikethrough means language is deleted, as is the custom for the legislative process.
Hansen ENRTF bonding fix uploaded by Sally Jo Sorensen on Scribd
It's more than a tweeted intention. Indeed, we're surprised that Marohn didn't talk to Hansen for the story, since he'll be the House peer of Alexandria Senator Bill Ingebrigtsen, to whom the reporter did speak.
Image: The logo of the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund (ENRTF).
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