The House voted 92-40 to adopt the conference committee report and repass HF2993/SF2963* late Sunday, giving its go-ahead to a $46.34 million funding package for projects meant to benefit the state’s natural resources.
The bill now goes to the governor.
Sponsored by Rep. Tom Hackbarth (R-Cedar) and Sen. Kari Dziedzic (DFL-Mpls), the proposal would distribute money appropriated from the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund, established in 1998 to use state lottery and investment income to subsidize natural resources projects.
The conference committee reached agreement on a number of projects that had been in dispute and added them to the final legislation. They include:
“There were a number of concessions that the House did make, but I think they were good ones,” Hackbarth said.
But Rep. Rick Hansen (DFL-South St. Paul) said over $8 million in recommended projects had been replaced by special interest initiatives.
“You still have special interest projects and the GOP cannot accept solar projects or climate projects, so they’re missing,” Hansen said. “I would encourage a ‘no’ vote.”The Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources approved a package of 89 projects last fall, but several are no longer present in the conference committee report.
Some of those eliminated include: