Bonding bill moves again – only to encounter line-item veto pen

By Judy Erickson, Government Relations Director

After being in legislative limbo for the last two weeks, the Conference Committee on HF2700 reconvened last week and the House and Senate approved a bonding bill just shy of $1 billion. The Conference Committee attempted to reach agreement with Gov. Tim Pawlenty (who threatened to veto the entire bill two weeks ago) by adding in his top priority projects.

By way of background, the Conference Committee on HF2700 passed recommendations to the Legislature on Monday, Feb. 22,  just one day before the Parks & Trails annual Day on the Hill. But in response to a letter from Gov. Tim Pawlenty  threatening to veto the bill because of size and content, the legislature used a parliamentary procedure to hold the bill in the Senate while seeking to reach agreement with the governor. For nearly two weeks, the Legislature sought to negotiate a final package Gov. Pawlenty would sign. Failing to find common ground, the Conference Committee moved ahead with their package, plus the governor’s top projects.

However, the total remained about the same as the original Conference Committee report. The governor chose not to veto the entire bill, and instead he cut $319 million in projects from the bill using his line-item veto authority. (See Gov. Pawlenty Vetoes and Parks & Trails Statement). The state trail acquisition and development projects in the bill were all vetoed (See the highlighted trail projects in the side-by-side comparison chart).

Parks and Trails had a strong package going into the conference committee. This drew criticism by some as being frivolous. Parks & Trails responded with a detailed letter to the governor outlining the broad public benefits of trails and increased efforts on the part of our trail partners to communicate with their legislators as well as the governor.

The bonding bill presented to the governor provided significant funding for state parks and trails in a year of stiff competition.

While the 2010 Trails Initiative went from a total of $38.89 million to $27.723 million it represented the largest trails appropriation since Parks & Trails began doing trail bonding packages in 2004.

The bonding bill funds key acquisition projects at William O’Brien, Split Rock Lighthouse State Parks and Cuyuna SRA. State Park acquisition for these projects was a top priority for Parks & Trails this session.

Finally, the package overall provided over $68 million to state and regional parks and trails. For details on the state parks and state and regional trail projects see the side-by-side comparison chart.

Conference Committee Report:

http://www.senate.leg.state.mn.us/committees/display_select_committee_amendment.php?ls=&id=168

Thank you to legislators who worked so hard on the bonding bill in particular support of parks and trails:

• Rep. Leon Lillie (DFL-N.St. Paul) and Sen. Gary Kubly (DFL-Granite Falls) for being the chief authors of the 2010 Trails Initiative.
• Rep. Rick Hansen (DFL-S.St. Paul) and Sen. Dennis Frederickson (R-New Ulm) for being the chief authors of the state park land acquisition bill.
• Rep. Alice Hausman (DFL-St. Paul) and Keith Langseth (DFL-Glyndon) for their hard work and efforts as Chairs of the House and Senate Capital Investment Committees and the Chairs of the Conference Committee on HF2700.  Thanks too to their wonderful staff – Jenny Nash (House) and Kathy Blair (Senate).
• Additional thanks for their work on the bonding bill go to the House –Senate Conferees:  Rep. Jean Wagenius (DFL-Minneapolis), Rep. Larry Howes (R-Walker), Rep. Bev Scalze (DFL-Little Canada) and Rep. Loren Solberg (DFL-Grand Rapids); Sen. David Tomassoni (DFL-Chisholm),  Sen. Sandy Pappas (DFL-St. Paul), Sen. Paul Koering (R-Brainerd) and Sen. Ann Lynch (DFL-Rochester).

Finally, thanks to the staff at the DNR Division of Parks and Trails for their assistance on the trails initiative and state park acquisition.