Dear Neighbor,
The House is in the thick of this session’s committee meeting schedule and one bill we heard this week would provide emergency funding for wetland mitigation lands to free up road work as we enter the construction season.
State law says that wetlands taken up by road construction must be replaced at a ratio of two units replacing each unit used. The funding that is necessary for the DNR to manage these land transactions normally is provided as part of capital investment bills. When last year’s bonding package unraveled in the final minutes of the session, the wetland mitigation funds were stopped in their tracks as well. Now the pot is dry and credits may be unavailable when the spring construction season arrives, putting projects on hold
The bill that has been authored in the House would provide a $5 million bump, short of the full funding that is needed but enough to get things rolling until more can be done in a future bonding bill.
This is a big deal in our part of the state, where wetlands are a large part of our landscape. I have a meeting scheduled with our county engineer next week and this is one of the subjects I expect to discuss.
Another subject that came up in St. Paul this week was an investigation into improper use of U.S. Bank Stadium suites controlled by the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority, including for Vikings games.
The Legislative Auditor’s office has determined the MSFA officials violated core ethical principles but did not break the law when they gave free tickets to family members and friends, but they did violate a core ethical principle.
The auditor recommends the Legislature exercise stronger control over the MSFA and, specifically, its use of complimentary tickets to stadium events.
House members are authoring bills in line with the auditor’s recommendations. One would revamp the appointments to the MSFA and increasing transparency and accountability to the Legislature. A bill I am working on would simply extend the gift ban which currently applies to elected officials to include appointed officials.
Reforms such as these would help us avoid the kind of tax-dollar abuse we experienced with the MSFA’s inexcusable behavior.
Look for more news from the Capitol soon, including details on other important bills I am authoring.
Sincerely,
Matt