By Judy Erickson, government relations director
The new funding provided by the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment for parks and trails has created a host of opportunities to support Minnesota's parks and trails, and to show visible results to Minnesotans the benefits of the new funds. Parks & Trails has been deeply engaged in the legislative process on how these new funds will be allocated.
With the legislature moving towards adjournment on May 18th, bills containing appropriations for the new funds are moving toward House and Senate passage. Unlike the Outdoor Heritage Fund, the Clean Water Fund and the Arts and Culture Fund, there are not a lot of controversies associated with the Parks and Trails Fund at this point in the session.
This is due, in large part, to the work done early in the Session by park and trail advocates and agencies on developing a framework and principles to work from in developing funding recommendations for the legislature to consider. Thanks go especially to the hard work of Rep. Leon Lillie (DFL-North St. Paul) and Sen. Patricia Torres Ray (DFL-Minneapolis). They recognized early on that each of Minnesota's parks and trail systems has different needs and priorities; and that the best approach was to fund the systems not to pick winners and losers by funding specific projects.
The House bill (HF1231) and the Senate bill (SF2043 and SF2106) are very similar in the major funding areas. They both fund state parks and trails and metro parks and trails fairly equally. They both provide funding for a grant program for parks and trails of regional significance. They also call for an inventory and framework to be developed to guide future funding decisions.
The House bill includes the creation of a solar grants program and a Naturalist Corp program. The Senate did not include these items in their bill and overall had a more simple approach.
After floor passage, the House and Senate will have to resolve their differences in a conference committee. At this time, it is expected that one conference committee will resolve the differences between all of the four funds created by the Legacy Amendment.
For details on the Senate bill:
http://www.senate.leg.state.mn.us/committees/display_select_committee_amendment.php?ls=&id=147
The spreadsheet can be found at:
http://www.senate.leg.state.mn.us/departments/fiscalpol/tracking/2009/dedicatedfunding.pdf
For details on the House bill:
https://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/bin/bldbill.php?bill=ceH1231.1.html&session=ls86
The spreadsheet can be found at:
http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/fiscal/files/MNHer09amendment.pdf
