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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
Session Update
News From Rep. Dan Fabian
Friends –
We have had one of the busiest weeks yet here at the Capitol this week. We have spent much of our time on the floor listening to budget bills proposed by finance committee chairs. The environment bill proposed by Rep. Denny McNamara, chairman of the Environment, Energy and Natural Resources committee passed on Monday. Below is a press release I sent out in regards to this bill.
News Release
Representative Dan Fabian Votes in Favor of Environment Budget Bill
Rep. Fabian says this bill prioritizes funding and focuses on sensitive issues such as chronic wasting disease as well as diverting lottery funds to protect our parks and trails.
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 we are prioritizing funding 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.
20 percent of the projects recommended in the original bill, HF 400, were removed because they were considered unnecessary spending at this time. High priority projects for critical emerging needs such as aquatic invasive species and chronic wasting disease were left in the bill. Aquatic invasive species as well as chronic wasting disease have become very real issues for our state this year and we must respond quickly to the risks posed to our state.
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 and critical 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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Please feel free to contact me at any time. I try very hard to respond to individual concerns, but sometimes they are late. Please know that I take your concerns seriously and I will try to get back to you in a timely manner.
Have a great weekend,
Dan
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