By Judy Erickson, government relations director
The last item on the Parks & Trails Council's 2009 legislative agenda to be completed was the decision on how to appropriate more than $65 million in anticipated revenues from Legacy Amendment. As you'll recall, the Legacy Amendment raises the state sales tax by 3/8 of 1 percentage point beginning in July and dedicates 14.25 percent of those proceeds to support parks and trails of statewide or regional significance.
Following a grueling weekend of conference committee sessions to reconcile differences in the House and Senate versions of the Legacy Bill, both bodies passed the Conference Committee Report on HF1231 in the final hours of the last night of the regular session on May 18.
The Parks & Trails Council of Minnesota applauds members of the House and Senate for combining their creative energies to ensure that Minnesotans who enjoy our great outdoors will see the benefits of the Legacy Amendment they so overwhelmingly voted for last November.
The final bill (HF1231, Article 3) approved by the Legislature largely incorporates two of the key principles Parks & Trails identified going into the session. The final bill:
- Recognizes equity and balance between the needs of the three park and trail systems serving Minnesota citizens (state system, metropolitan regional system and Greater Minnesota regional system).
- Recognizes and respects that the needs of each system are different and the Parks and Trails Fund should be used to meet priority needs of each.
The Legislature appropriated a total of $65.097 million for the next biennium, FY2010-2011 from the Parks and Trails Fund for parks and trails of statewide or regional significance. The Legislature has set aside 10 percent of this money from the first year for cash-flow purposes knowing that Legacy Amendment proceeds will not start coming in until August and knowing that it is not clear yet when the 2010 appropriation will be available for expenditure. While the new funding will not be in place for this summer season, Minnesotans should see visible results from the funding by the summer of 2010.
State Parks and Trails and Metropolitan Regional Parks and Trails were funded at exactly the same level as one another, each receiving $27.781 million for the biennium. In addition, a new Regional Parks and Trails Grant program was established and funded at $8.87 million for the next biennium. These are for grants to parks and trails of regional significance statewide. The $8.87 million figure is higher than either the House or Senate bill originally provided and reflects the hard work of county-regional park providers outside the metro area.
Other features of the bill include: the creation of a solar energy grant program for park facilities that is funded at $1.1 million for the biennium, and the creation of a Minnesota Naturalist Corps to support state parks in providing interpretative programming that will complement the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources’ existing naturalist internship program.
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.
The funding for State Parks and Trails should result in the following new benefits:
- Additional naturalist programming at many state parks
- Expanded hours at state park visitor centers
- New conservation education technology delivery systems
- New information centers and kiosks in state parks and along state trails
- Accelerated resource management activities across thousands of acres of state park lands and along state trails
- Accelerated maintenance of state park facilities and trails
- Accelerated energy conservation activities and installation of solar technologies to reduce energy costs.
To view the complete Legacy Conference Committee Report (HF1231):
https://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/bin/bldbill.php?bill=ccrhf1231.html&session=ls86
To view the complete Legacy Conference Committee Report appropriation spreadsheet:
http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/fiscal/files/MNHer09amendment.pdf
