Omnibus finance bill approved by environment committee

Issues that have caused controversy over the last few months surfaced again during three days of testimony on the omnibus environment finance bill. But after a number of attempts to strip those provisions, they remain part of HF846 which was approved by the House Environment and Natural Resources Policy and Finance Committee Thursday.

Heading to the House Ways and Means Committee, the bill would appropriate more than $780 million to fund state and local government agencies and groups around Minnesota for the upcoming biennium as they work to preserve, protect and enhance the state’s natural resources.

Bill remains a work in progress

Rep. Denny McNamara

Rep. Denny McNamara (R-Hastings), the bill sponsor and chair of the committee, said the bill is not yet a finished product.

“We have work yet to do as we move this bill on to ways and means and then to the floor,” McNamara said.

Amendments that would have removed some of the more controversial provisions of the bill failed on roll-call votes that largely followed party lines. They included an amendment to delete language stripping the Pollution Control Agency’s Citizens’ Board of much of its authority, and an amendment to eliminate a provision delaying new sulfate standards for wild rice.

More than the provisions of the bill, however, it was the funding methods used in some portions of HF846 that raised the most objections. Several state agencies went on record with their opposition to the bill, including the Pollution Control Agency.

Commissioner John Linc Stine submitted a five-page letter to the committee detailing his agency’s objections. A core concern is the bill’s transfer of funds from PCA’s Remediation Fund, which he said would hamper the agency’s emergency response capability and reduce its work to clean closed landfills.

“This bill appears to be a step backward,” Stine wrote. “Its provisions result in damaging cuts for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.”

Greta Gauthier, legislative director for the Pollution Control Agency, looks through the many amendments to the omnibus environment finance bill prior to the April 16 committee approval of the bill. Photo by Andrew VonBank

Rep. Rick Hansen (DFL-South St. Paul) said the bill is funded by moving money between existing accounts. “We have shifts and transfers, the same old story we’ve seen year after year when the other side’s in charge.”

However, McNamara said some money in question was from a specific program that hadn’t been used in the last three or four years and taxpayers would be better served by being “more prudent” with it.

“I understand you may not like some of what we’re doing,” McNamara said. “But leaving millions of dollars laying around with no plan on what they’re going to be used for just doesn’t make sense to me.”

Other amendments

Another effort to remove a portion of the bill that has caused some controversy, the A22 amendment, was also defeated on a roll-call vote. Offered by Hansen, it would have deleted sections of the bill requiring legislative approval of new water quality standards, in certain cases, and an independent review of some water quality standards.

Hansen called those measures “poor legislation,” but the amendment failed 13-7.

One major amendment the committee did adopt was the A18, which added many of the provisions of this year’s omnibus game and fish bill. Rep. Tom Hackbarth (R-Cedar), the sponsor of HF1406, said there is “not a lot to the bill this year,” but a few of those provisions include:

• allowing residents of a Minnesota veterans home to hunt and take antlerless deer without a permit;
• directing the Department of Natural Resources to conduct a hunter participation and satisfaction survey annually; and
• an extension of the beaver hunting season until May 15.