 I want to thank some groups who recently took some time to meet with me in Saint Paul. Last week, some colleagues and I met with the Iron Mining Association of Minnesota.  City Council members from Silver Bay met with me at the Capitol.  Finally, Senator Tom Bakk and I got to have dinner with some folks from Cook County.  Here are updates on some other topics at the Capitol. Boosting, Reforming PILTLast week the House Taxes Committee held a hearing on my bill to increase Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) for natural resources land administered by counties and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR). The bill also creates additional PILT payment amounts for counties with high proportions of PILT eligible lands to help improve equity within the program itself. PILT was created specifically to ensure fairness for counties when they have significant amounts of state land and therefore a lower tax base. However, there are vast disparities within the current PILT formula, which run directly contrary to the program’s intent in the first place. Despite 95% of PILT land being in northern Minnesota – including over half of all land in Koochiching, Lake of the Woods, and Aitkin counties eligible for PILT – the bulk of PILT increases over the past four decades have gone to southern Minnesota counties. It only makes sense for a program designed to ensure fairness is actually administered fairly. This bill will go a long way toward addressing these significant inequities within PILT and will ultimately reduce property taxes for folks in northern Minnesota. Delivering Drought ReliefLast week I was proud to vote for legislation to help livestock farmers, specialty crop producers, and communities harmed by 2021’s historic drought. The proposal provides grants, loans, and other direct relief for farmers with the funding targeted to small operations unable to access federal crop insurance. With the growing season just around the corner, they deserve financial relief right now. We’ve been listening to farmers, and these important investments reflect what they’ve requested so they can recover from these difficulties and once again have the opportunity to thrive. Our forest lands were also devastated by the drought, including the destruction of trees and seedlings across the state. Some sites experienced 100% mortality. To address this difficulty, the bill also included $5.5 million to replace seedlings on DNR-managed lands that were killed by the drought and to help private forestland owners and tribal and county governments replace seedlings on their lands. These investments of course will benefit our state’s timber and forest products industries down the road. Help for Our Hometown HeroesLast week, the House also passed a bill to update the Hometown Heroes Assistance Program. Our firefighters face alarmingly high incidences of cancer, cardiac issues, and emotional trauma. The new program, which lawmakers enacted last year, provides firefighters access to education, prevention, and care to address cardiac conditions, emotional trauma or cancer diagnoses. The Hometown Heroes Assistance Program is the most comprehensive in the nation of its kind, and provides firefighters with free access to emotional trauma resources, up-to-$20,000 from critical illness insurance policies, and ongoing health and wellness training. Prior to the program’s enactment, Minnesota was ranked 45th out of 50 states when it comes to investing in the fire service. This is an important solution to help protect the heroes in our communities who put themselves in harm’s way to keep us safe. Don’t hesitate to contact me with your feedback and ideas, or if I can ever be of assistance. It’s an honor to represent you. Sincerely, Rob Ecklund
State Representative |