Skip to main content Skip to office menu Skip to footer
Capital IconMinnesota Legislature

Legislative News and Views - Rep. Paul Anderson (R)

Back to profile

Budget bills proceeding; high-volume water users could pay more

Monday, April 8, 2013

By Rep. Paul Anderson

Action on the major omnibus and spending bills is proceeding at the Legislature. A small deficit is still projected when we begin the new biennium in July, so any new spending we approve must either have its own source of revenue or have a corresponding reduction somewhere in the budget to balance out. Current plans by Democratic leadership call for around $2 billion in new taxes to finance their spending increases in education along with some fashion of property tax relief.

To the surprise of many, their early budget plans contained reductions in the area of health and human services. However, some of those affected programs have been shuffled to other areas. For example the budget we passed in the Housing Finance Committee last week contained around $7 million for programs that had been transferred to the Housing budget from HHS.

***

A bill heard in the Environment, Natural Resources and Ag Finance Committee last week contained a proposal from committee chair, Rep. Jean Wagenius, for increases in fees for large water users in Minnesota. Those who use over one million gallons per year would be subject to this increase. The largest users of surface- and ground-water in the state are municipal water departments, with farm and other types of irrigation also affected by this proposal. The increase for agricultural irrigation is fourfold in the proposed legislation, while a testifier representing the state’s golf courses said the increase for some of his group would be 11 times.

The revenue from these increased fees would go to the DNR, the agency charged with approving large gallon water permits and monitoring ground water levels. While some increase may be warranted, it’s my feeling that the increases contained in this bill are too high. I support tightening regulations to insure that all those pumping over one million gallons per year out of a well obtain the necessary permits. When all these wells are accounted for, the DNR can do a better job of estimating water withdrawal out of a particular area. Currently, when a well is dug, the driller must submit the information to the Dept. of Health and, eventually, a permit must be obtained from the DNR for the use of large volume wells.

Because of last year’s drought, concern over water supplies is high. In certain areas of the state that concern is higher. Snowfall this past winter has been average or above, which may be a sign that the drought is diminishing. Winter is having a hard time leaving us, as the forecast for this week contains several chances of snow along with continued cold temps. Comparisons are being made to last year’s early spring as much of the small grains had already been planted by this time. Last year was unusually early, while this year will probably be a bit late. Depending on the weather going forward, my guess is that we are at least two-three weeks away from substantial field work in our part of the state.

***

I sent out a survey last week to those who receive my email updates. If you would like to take part, at the end of this column is a link that will take you to it. I appreciate getting feedback from constituents, so I’d like to encourage you to take a few minutes to fill out the survey. Thanks in advance. You can find my survey at www.house.mn/12b under “News Items” on the right side of the page.

-30-