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State Representative Dan Fabian
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-9635
For more information contact: House GOP Communications 651-296-5520
NEWS RELEASE
Representative Dan Fabian Votes in Favor of Environment Budget Bill
St. Paul – Representative Fabian voted Tuesday afternoon for the proposed Environment, Energy and Natural Resources budget bill. The Environment bill aims to prioritize funding to focus on core functions to achieve clean air, water and land.
It also targets funding for emerging critical issues for the state, including reallocating funds from the Environmental and Natural Resource Trust Fund. Recommendations have been made to address high priority needs such as $5 million for aquatic invasive species and $1.2 million for chronic wasting disease.
The budgets for the DNR and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) have been reduced from the state general fund by about 11%.
“We have been working closely with the DNR to make sure that funds are being prioritized and that we are protecting public health as well as the environment when it comes to reforms,” said Rep. Fabian.
Approximately $52 million is available from the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund to preserve and enhance our environment and natural resources.
Eighty percent of the projects recommended in the original bill, HF 400, remain intact for consideration along with new, higher priority projects for emerging needs such as aquatic invasive species and chronic wasting disease. Aquatic invasive species as well as chronic wasting disease have become very real issues for our environment this year and the DNR is very aware of the risks posed to our natural resources and environment.
This bill would require the DNR to set aside dollars out of lottery funds to pay PILT to counties if the DNR buys land using lottery funds. It also diverts money from lottery funds to parks and trails, by cutting funding for about 28 out of 80 projects such as $270,000 for community-based conservation and recreation planning, and $200,000 to control encroachment of woody vegetation in grasslands and $400,000 for cross-cultural cooperation in fish and wildlife conservation.
Rep. Fabian added, “We need to have flexibility in the Environmental Trust Fund account in order to address timely, sensitive needs, such as the chronic wasting disease as well as diverting lottery funds to protect our state parks and trails.”
The bill proposed by the Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Rep. Denny McNamara passed with a 106-22 vote.
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