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Update on the Environment Budget Bill at the State Legislature

Tell your legislators and Governor Dayton to oppose the Omnibus Environment Finance Bill (H.F. 1010) to protect our water and ensure that the intent of the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Constitutional Amendment is upheld.

The bill includes a number of troubling policy provisions that threaten Minnesota’s lakes, rivers, streams and Great Outdoors.

Minnesotans care deeply about our lakes, rivers and streams; wildlife habitat; parks and trails; and natural areas. The number one reason 1.6 million Minnesota voters supported the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment was to clean up and protect Minnesota’s lakes, rivers and streams. Minnesota’s Great Outdoors is a value held close to Minnesotans’ hearts, with dedicated funds guaranteed by Minnesota’s Constitution. Unfortunately, this bill puts those values in jeopardy.

Rollbacks to Existing Policies to Protect Our Water
The Omnibus Environmental Finance bill contains troubling policy provisions that would weaken existing laws that protect our air and water. We oppose:
• Removing requirements for new coal plants to clean up their pollution;
• Exempting large ethanol facility expansions from mandatory environmental review;
• Threatening the future of native wild rice (Angustifolia variety), our state grain, by weakening the sulfate pollution standard for wild rice waters;
• Limiting protections for phosphorus discharges into Lake Pepin;
• Repealing protections for the Mississippi River Corridor Critical Area;
• Weakening permit standards for large factory farms;
• Weakening citizens' rights to request environmental review for a project and restricting citizen petition signers to only those who reside in the county or adjacent county; and
• Closing one of DNR's two critical tree nurseries and limiting tree nursery operations in the state.

We believe that additional revenue needs to be added to the environmental budget bill. We support adding a proposed hunting and fishing license fee increase to provide additional funds to the game and fish fund. We also support the proposal to raise the boat license surcharge to provide additional revenue for the Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) program. If the surcharge is raised this session, this would allow the conference committee to move some of the money allocated from the Environmental Trust Fund for the AIS programs back to projects recommended by the LCCMR.

Minnesotans value our lakes, rivers, and streams and our Great Outdoors. In order to ensure these great places are available for our future generations, we must ensure there is sufficient funding for conservation, restoration and enhancement of our lakes, rivers, streams, prairies and forests today.

We currently are at an historic low of one percent of general fund support – both the House and Senate bills take us below that modest share. The bills do not maintain our Constitution’s “traditional sources of funding” and are inconsistent with the wishes of the 1.6 million Minnesotans who voted to raise their taxes in tough economic times.

In the Land of 10,000 Lakes, this bill significantly reduces Minnesota’s commitment to our water resources. Minnesota should be about Protecting Our Water – which is not a Democratic or Republican issue, but instead a long-held Minnesota value.

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Governor
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This Action Alert Campaign is Closed.