As is so often the case, Bluestem Prairie find itself agreeing with herpologist Christopher E. Smith:
Is two hours of your time really too much to ask Minnesota? Watch the recent hearing on HF 1076 -- House omnibus environment and natural resources bill. #mnleg #pollinators #ConservationFunding #PFAS #Pesticides https://t.co/3i7yQlFTdz pic.twitter.com/P0QQwu0PFX
— Christopher E. Smith (@FieldEcology) April 9, 2021
Here's the Minnesota House Information Services YouTube:
Session Daily's Nate Gotlieb reports in With amendments added, committee advances omnibus environment bill:
After six amendments were debated, the $1.7 billion omnibus environment and natural resources bill was approved Thursday.
Voting along party lines, the House Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee approved HF1076, sponsored by Rep. Rick Hansen (DFL-South St. Paul), as amended, and referred it to the House Ways and Means Committee.
Its companion, SF959, is sponsored by Sen. Bill Ingebrigtsen (R-Alexandria) and was approved Wednesday by the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Finance Committee.
"We are in unprecedented times," Hansen said. "These are very challenging situations, but the problems that we have faced before and new problems that have arisen have not gone away during this COVID period."
Rep. Josh Heintzeman (R-Nisswa) said the bill is problematic for many organizations and constituents represented by Republicans.
Thursday's discussion centered around the amendments to the delete-all amendment.
The A1 amendment, sponsored by Rep. Rob Ecklund (DFL-International Falls), would allocate $250,000 for a statewide all-terrain vehicle trails master plan. It was approved on a voice vote.
The A3 amendment, sponsored by Rep. Jamie Becker-Finn (DFL-Roseville), would change the classification of gar fish from game to rough fish to limit how many can be possessed. Anglers can possess as many rough fish as they want but are limited in how many game fish they can take.
DNR Assistant Commissioner Bob Meier said the department does not have a great handle around the gar population but is concerned about its status.
The amendment was approved along party lines, with Republicans wanting to see more research before acting.
The A8 amendment, sponsored by Hansen, would change how dry cleaner registration fees are calculated. It was approved on a voice vote.
Sponsored by Rep. Todd Lippert (DFL-Northfield), the A11 amendment would set a goal of having 30% of Minnesota's privately owned farmland using soil-health practices, such as cover crops or managed rotational grazing, by 2030. It was approved along party lines, with Republicans saying the goal would be used in the future to impose more regulation on farmers, a claim Lippert disputed.
"This isn't a mandate," he said. "It's a measuring stick."
The A12 amendment, sponsored by Hansen, would require the Pollution Control Agency to make rules for the disposal of pesticide-coated seeds, providing the agency with $133,000 to do so. It was approved by a voice vote.
Meanwhile, the Star Tribune reports Senate panel again tries to alter projects with constitutional backing. Well, then. Tony Kennedy reports:
State lawmakers began the 2021 session saying they would move quickly to pass a backlog of recommended wildlife habitat projects and environmental research tied to state lottery proceeds.
But a key Senate committee this week created an outcry by introducing major changes to the list of outdoors projects that was first settled upon in 2019 by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR).
The action by the Republican-controlled Senate Environment and Natural Resources Finance Committee now has complicated the approval process for $131.8 million worth of LCCMR-recommended investments adopted by the commission in 2019 and 2020. Money for the projects is in the bank.
In the past, LCCMR bills have traveled separately through the Legislature, passing intact or with modest changes. But now the 2019 list of projects has been changed substantially and lumped into a bill that also cuts general fund appropriations to the Department of Natural Resources by $18 million. The big omnibus bill also demands a wolf hunt this fall, allows hunters to leave temporary tree stands inside wildlife management areas and proposes a reduction in the statewide walleye bag limit from six to four.
If the amalgamated bill passes the Senate Finance Committee next week, it would go to the Senate floor. . . .
Klemz and others have insisted that the funds are constitutionally dedicated to supplement state spending on the outdoors, not supplant it. Wastewater infrastructure enhancements and other municipal water projects would deplete the fund, the critics say. Instead, the water projects should continue to be financed with state bonding and other loan programs, they say.
"It's really frustrating as an advocate who has been watching this for a while,'' Klemz said. "This is not what the process should look like.''
Rep. Rick Hansen, D-South St. Paul, chairs the House Environment and Natural Resources Committee. His committee accepted LCCMR's funding recommendations early this year and intended to advance them to the House floor separate from other legislation. But the Senate's approach to alter the 2019 list of LCCMR projects and bundle it with a bunch of other measures complicates matters, he said.
"They are playing games with it again,'' Hansen said this week in an interview. "It's outrageous.''
Senate Republicans last year admittedly withheld approval of the 2019 LCCMR package as a way to push back against state implementation of a "clean car" emissions rule. Hansen said he was hopeful for a turnaround this year after two key Republicans said publicly at the outset of the session that the 2019 and 2020 LCCMR funding packages should be moved along and "out the door.''
Sen. Bill Ingebrigtsen, R-Alexandria, was one of those senators. Yet it was his committee that dramatically altered the 2019 list of projects. Ingebrigtsen said in an interview Thursday that the addition of wastewater projects, rural septic funding and flood control investments is legal, based on advice from experts.
"They [opponents] say it's unconstitutional, but that's not right,'' Ingebrigtsen said. "Let's get some clean water stuff out there. … It's a different philosophy.''
He said his committee deleted pollinator projects because the state has already invested heavily in that area and can afford a one-year break. "It's not like we haven't paid attention to pollinators,'' he said.
The bill advanced by Ingebrigtsen's committee also reduced by $2 million grants intended for Minnesota's Scientific and Natural Area public lands and DNR Parks and Trails.
Ingebrigtsen said that of all the elements included in his committee's omnibus bill, LCCMR expenditures "are the biggest grind.'' He said it's still not out of the question for the Senate to isolate the LCCMR provisions for separate consideration if it helps to pass them. Hansen has told his colleagues in the House he is hoping for such an approach. So far, neither the House nor Senate has altered the 2020 package of LCCMR projects in need of legislative approval.
In short, the Senate is holding back what Minnesota voters expected when they dedicated funds for the LCCMR. Outrageous.
Just like with the ag omnibuzz, we'll be pulling a side story or two about the House hearing.
Related post:
Photo: A rusty-patched bumble bee, Minnesota's state bee.
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