Next year nearly $90 million from the Clean Water Fund could supplement base funding for ongoing efforts to clean up the state’s impaired waters — or will it supplant budgets due to expected cuts?
Rep. Jean Wagenius (DFL-Mpls) told the House Legacy Funding Division March 8 that because budget targets had yet to be released, it was premature to consider
HF656, the Clean Water Fund bill, sponsored by Rep. Paul Torkelson (R-Nelson Township). The division approved the bill as amended before laying it over for possible inclusion in the division’s omnibus bill.
Wagenius repeatedly asked if funding for clean water projects would be retained in the House majority party’s proposed General Fund budget or if she should expect cuts, which might then be construed as the Legacy money supplanting base funding.
“It’s your choice to cut, but the constitution says thou shall not supplant,” she said.
She pointed to one possible example. The amended bill included a $500,000 appropriation to study the level of sulfate in wild rice stands. Members of the House Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Policy and Finance Committee had earlier seen a $1.5 million appropriation in the Pollution Control Agency’s budget for the study, which some members considered too expensive. Torkelson said the Clean Water Fund appropriation is one-third of the cost of the study but declined to say where the
$1 million would come from.
Rep. Denny McNamara (R-Hastings), House environment committee chairman said there is value in doing the sulfate study, but “we have a difference of opinion on where the money comes from.”
A companion,
SF657, sponsored by Sen. Bill Ingebrigtsen (R-Alexandria), awaits action by the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee.
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