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

Legislation taking shape as new session set to start

Monday, February 17, 2014

 

By Rep. Paul Anderson

 

The new legislative session gets underway at noon next Tuesday, Feb. 25, and although it’s been billed as the “unsession” with a priority of doing away with unneeded rules and regulations, more than 300 new bills have been introduced in the weeks leading up to Opening Day.

 

With time being short, it’s not clear how many will see the light of day in terms of passing out of committee and making it to the House floor. A bonding bill approaching $1 billion will most certainly be worked on, with a minimum-wage bill and an anti-bullying bill also apparently high on the majority party’s list.

 

I will be introducing legislation to give some financial relief for those who purchase new or larger propane storage tanks during the next two years. With a major source of supply – the Cochin Pipeline – not being available after April of this year, it’s important that we increase the amount of storage in the country. We will be relying on the railroad for most of the LP supply in this part of the state, and having additional storage will help cushion periods of high demand, such as we’ve experienced this past fall and winter. My legislation would exempt propane tanks from the Minnesota sales tax for the next two years as we ramp up storage capacity in the state. It would apply to residential tanks as well as storage facilities for propane used in corn drying.

 

***

The Environment, Natural Resources, and Ag. Finance Committee held two days of hearings last week. One focused on the process of setting the amount of funding to be set aside if the proposed PolyMet mine in northeastern Minnesota is approved. Called “financial assurance,” the funding would be used in the reclamation process when the mining is finished, in addition to financing clean-up operations for the water collected from the tailings and mining areas of the project.

 

What makes the process challenging is the fact that water clean-up operations could last several hundred years after mining ceases because of the possibility of run-off from waste rock containing sulfur. Questions arose about just how to go about setting aside funds for that long a time, and making sure it wouldn’t be affected if the mine shuts down early or a parent company declares bankruptcy.

 

The Minnesota DNR is charged with handling the permitting process. It has already stretched out over several years and we are still in the environmental review portion. After that’s complete, the company would then apply for what’s called a “permit to mine” where it proposes an exact amount to be set aside for financial assurance. Preliminary numbers mentioned during the hearing ranged from $200 million up to $400 million. DNR officials who testified said the process is working and that enough safeguards are in place to protect the state’s financial interest and the environment.

 

The second hearing focused on the annual Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Fund appropriation. In its current form at $108 million, it contains more funding that any previous Lessard-Sams bill. Much of the money is to be used for either land acquisition or enhancement. For example, it calls for the purchase of 2,000 acres of native prairie and the enhancement of an additional 7,000. One aspect of the wording caused concern for several of us rural members. It was a sentence that appeared 14 times throughout the bill, coming after language mentioning a land purchase. It said, “Lands acquired with this appropriation may not be used for emergency haying and grazing in response to federal or state disaster declarations.”

 

-30-