Accessibility menu
State Representative Paul Anderson
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-4317
For more information contact: House GOP Communications 651-296-5520
GUEST COLUMN
Notes from the Capitol
By state Rep. Paul Anderson
As you may have heard, the Legislature finally acted to make changes in Green Acres. The House, on March 30, passed the conference committee report that contained those modifications. While the bill doesn’t provide a total repeal of last year’s changes – which was the first choice of Republicans – it does provide relief to the most unpopular aspects. It’s expected the Governor will approve the bill in the days to come.
Three major aspects of Green Acres were once again modified under the new legislation. The payback provision reverts back to three years from seven; there is an grandfather clause; and land enrolled in the program will be eligible to be transferred to a son or daughter.
Another point in the program was not popular was the re-classifying of all ag. land into either productive or non-productive. That will continue with one exception, and that is if an area of wetland or wood land is interspersed with productive land, it will not have to be separated out.
In addition, land enrolled in government conservation programs, such as CRP, will be eligible for Green Acres if it was in agricultural use before enrollment in the conservation program.
Any non-productive land not eligible for the program will now have until next year to withdraw, and there will be no penalties assessed if it’s taken out by that time. All land of this type must be out of Green Acres by the year 2013.
For those types of acres, a new program called the Rural Preserve Property Tax Program will be initiated. For further details on this new program and all the other details of the new Green Acres legislation, check out my e-mail update (e-mail me at rep.paul.anderson@house.mn to sign up for my e-mail updates).
Attended the annual banquet and fund-raiser of Pope County Pheasant Restoration a couple of weeks back. A sell-out crowd was in attendance, and more than $40,000 was raised. All that money stays in the local area to benefit pheasants and their habitat. Local business also supports the organization well as a total of over 225 donations were received.
According to Dick Oeltjen of Glenwood, spokesman for Pope County Pheasant Restoration, 40 percent of the group’s donations come from outside Pope County. He added, “We have food plots in Stevens County and Stearns County, in addition to right around here. We don’t think pheasants know about county lines.”
--30--
Rep. Anderson encourages constituents to contact his new office with input regarding any state legislative issue. He can be reached on the web at www.house.mn/13A and via email at rep.paul.anderson@house.mn. To contact Anderson by phone, call (651) 296-4317. Mail can be sent to Rep. Paul Anderson, 239 State Office Building, 100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., St. Paul, Minnesota 55155.
News Items
- ANDERSON TAKES HOUSE OATH - (Posted: Jan 8 2013 12:00AM)
- Legislative begins this week - (Posted: Jan 11 2013 3:36PM)
- Current surplus allows K-12 repayment - (Posted: Dec 10 2012 12:00AM)
- Archived News Items
- Subscribe to RSS News Feeds
- Read more about RSS.