LCCMR funding moves forward, several projects do not

The House Environment and Natural Resources Policy and Finance Committee approved nearly $50 million in funding Thursday based on recommendations from the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources – but not before deleting nine projects the LCCMR had approved and adding several others it hadn’t.

As originally written, HF2993 would have appropriated $46.3 million from the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund to help pay for 89 projects recommended by the LCCMR, which oversees the application and review process for those seeking that money.

The bill was approved and referred to the House Civil Law and Data Practices Committee. The companion, SF2963, is sponsored by Sen. Kari Dziedzic (DFL-Mpls) and awaits action by Senate Environment and Energy Committee.

Before approval, however, an amendment offered by the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Tom Hackbarth (R-Cedar), made several changes to HF2993 that committee members spent most of the meeting debating.

LCCMR Director Susan Thornton, left, presents an overview of the commission’s appropriation recommendations to members of the House Environment and Natural Resources Policy and Finance Committee March 17. Rep. Tom Hackbarth, right, sponsors the LCCMR bill. Photo by Andrew VonBank

“There were a number of different issues in the bill I had some concerns with,” Hackbarth said.

Among the items deleted was a University of Minnesota project that would have created localized climate models to help communities develop strategies to adapt to changes in climate.

Climatologist Mark Seeley told the committee the proposal was “well grounded” and had come from the “bottom up,” with local governments, soil and water conservation districts and others wanting to do more planning for the future.

“Our state is acknowledged to be one of the states in the country already the most effected by climate change,” Seeley said. “This is very, very important.”

Seeley was one of several members of the university faculty to testify in support of the projects that were cut.

Rep. Rick Hansen (DFL-South St. Paul) said the amendment added projects that weren’t vetted by LCCMR while taking a “wrecking ball” to those that were.

“It appears the amendment doesn’t want to look for things that it might find an answer it doesn’t like,” Hansen said. “It takes a wrecking ball to reality.”

Hackbarth’s amendment, which was adopted on an 11-9 party-line vote, also added funding for conservation easements and wetlands restoration, as well as money to map aggregate resources in counties where that hadn’t been done, and funding to study the impact of changes in land use in the Pineland Sands aquifer along the Crow Wing River.   

The committee adopted several other amendments as well, including:

• directing the LCCMR to “give priority to large-scale projects, on the ground projects and programs that provide tangible results” when making recommendations;
• making the LCCMR subject to the same open meeting laws as the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council; and
• requiring each of the constituencies represented on LCCMR – citizens, state senators and state representatives – to elect their respective chairs.

WATCH Full video of Thursday's meeting on YouTube