Speaker: House hasn't forgotten dedicated funding

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Dennis Anderson: Speaker: House hasn't forgotten dedicated funding
The Senate has made the most progress on a bill, but House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher says that she is in touch with the issue and that it will receive more intense focus this week.
By Dennis Anderson, Star Tribune
Last update: March 10, 2007 – 10:36 PM
http://www.startribune.com/531/story/1044760.html

The Minnesota Senate has moved quickly on bills this session to dedicate a fraction of the sales tax to conservation. Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller, DFL-Minneapolis, has taken charge of the dedicated-funding bill in the Senate and has said his chamber will produce a bill before adjourning -- albeit one with an arts component.
Less energy has been directed so far to dedicated funding in the House, and supporters worry that after nine years of attempting to pass intensified-conservation legislation in the Legislature, the issue could stall again.

In the interview below, Speaker of the House Margaret Anderson Kelliher, DFL-Minneapolis, acknowledges that dedicated conservation funding was a House DFL priority before last fall's election and says the issue will receive more attention when the House finishes its version of the state budget.

Q Where is dedicated funding in the House?

A A few dedicated funding bills have been introduced, and a couple more will be introduced. We are undergoing a process in our DFL caucus in which we are learning about different dedicated funding bills. The caucus will meet this week on the issue.

Q At that meeting, will the caucus debate dedicated funding? Ask for a show of hands?

A Everyone in the caucus is welcome to come to the meeting, and about 85 percent to 90 percent of DFL House members will show up. There will be presentations by the bill authors and folks familiar with the issue, and we'll talk things over. Many of your readers know there has been a big turnover in the House, where more than 50 percent of members have served less than three years. So not everyone is completely familiar with the issue.

I personally have been a supporter of dedicated funding for conservation since it was first introduced nine years ago or so. But time is needed for other members to become more familiar with it.

Q In the Senate, Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller has taken control of the dedicated funding bill and is its lead sponsor. Will you take similar action in the House?

A The House Speaker tends not to carry a lot of legislation. [House DFL] Majority Leader Tony Sertich [of Chisholm] will carry a bill, and I know Rep. Rick Hansen [South St. Paul] is also.

Q What is your personal knowledge of the need for intensified natural-resources conservation in Minnesota?

A There is no question the environment and outdoors have seen at least a 30 percent cut in funding. This gets to the heart of what we enjoy doing in Minnesota. I served on the House environment and environment finance committees. So I have a pretty good understanding of the issues involved.

Also, I grew up on a farm in the Minnesota River Valley, and my grandfather had a cabin on Swan Lake. And every weekend in summer I fish with my kids. So I'm in touch with the issue, in part because I am an angler. And I have three brothers who hunt.

Q Nine years is a long time to wait for legislation most observers agree is needed. And House DFLers said in the run-up to last fall's election that dedicated conservation funding would be a priority for them this session. So what are its chances?

A I wouldn't want to characterize the possibility one way or another. There is a strong interest in the House for increasing funding for outdoors and clean water. If we decide a constitutional amendment is the best way to do it, we will pass it. I do think it will include an arts component. The reality is the arts could bring in enough voters to pass it at the ballot.

Q Do the arts need the money?

A They have also seen dramatic funding cuts. There is a lot of good that arts funding can do in communities throughout the state. The two issues, outdoors and the arts, are similar in that they both touch people's lives.

Q But does arts funding deserve to be enshrined in the state constitution?

A As long as it's in the context of touching Minnesotans' lives in a broad sense across the state, yes. The mechanisms are in place to deliver that money throughout Minnesota. If they weren't, we'd have a problem. If it were metro-centric, for example, it wouldn't work. But this would have statewide benefits. In a sense, arts are organized in Minnesota a bit like Ducks Unlimited or Pheasants Forever, which have chapters throughout the state.

Q Can the Legislature's hearing of dedicated funding bills go on forever, year after year? Or is this session do-or-die for the initiative?

A This session will be important for the environment. Right now in the House, the budget looms large. That is first and foremost. After that, I hope we can get to other things, dedicated funding among them.


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Again, dedicated-funding bill has become polluted
CHRIS NISKANEN, ST Paul Pioneer Press
Posted on Sun, Mar. 11, 2007 
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/sports/outdoors/16862945.htm

The idea of dedicating a portion of Minnesota's sales tax to natural resources has attracted more politicians than a bug zapper on a hot August night, but the bill now is about to become — once again — a dead butterfly on the patio of good ideas.

Leaders of the Senate Democrats have all but hijacked the bill and told conservation groups to accept their deal or buzz off. Their deal means a constitutional amendment that also funds arts and public broadcasting, a proposal that departs dramatically from common sense.

Senators claim the natural resources and arts funding deserve equal billing on the constitutional amendment question under a marquee of "Minnesota legacy."

But can we honestly compare Minnesota Public Radio's snazzy downtown St. Paul buildings or the new Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis to the polluted Minnesota River, which dumps tons of chemicals into the Gulf of Mexico and contributes to what's known as the Dead Zone in the Gulf, and say there's a comparable legacy?

Or compare the tens of thousands of sewer pipes that dump raw sewage into rivers and streams in southern Minnesota to the Minnesota State Arts Board and see an equal need?

The legacy, dear senators, is Minnesota's lakes and rivers, according to state reports you fund and read, are becoming more polluted and less swimmable every year.

To compare arts funding to environmental funding because both support Minnesota "legacies" is a stretch of the imagination, even for most arts-loving Minnesota voters.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives is moving at a snail's pace on dedicated funding, mostly because House members are fearful to expend any of their newly won political majority on the idea.

Their best effort is a bill authored by Rep. Rick Hansen, DFL-South St. Paul, which devotes one-fourth of 1 percent of the sales tax to natural resources, parks and trails. There is no arts funding, but the money would come from a tax increase.

Margaret Anderson Kelliher, the new House speaker, undoubtedly isn't sure whether a tax increase would look good for the newly elected Democrat majority, even though she threw her support behind the dedicated-funding idea at a recent Minnesota Outdoors Heritage Alliance banquet.

The House proposal is approaching a March 23 deadline to pass policy committees. Otherwise, it's lights out for another year.

Every significant conservation and environmental group has signed onto the dedicated-funding legislation, including the Minnesota Environmental Partnership, the Campaign for Conservation and more than 40 groups that are part of the Duck Rally organization. The total memberships for those organizations reach several hundred thousand Minnesotans.

Minnesota anglers, hunters and conservationists need to call their lawmakers and urge them to support the dedicated-funding package but without arts funding.

Here are two phone numbers to start with:

• House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher: 651-296-0171.

• Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller: 651-296-7809.

Phone numbers for individual lawmakers can be found on the Legislature's Web site. The address is: www.leg.state.mn.us.

Chris Niskanen can be reached at cniskanen@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5524