Committee update - Minnesota State Legislature

Committee update
S.F. 2458, authored by Marty, prohibits
political parties from making independent
expenditures on their candidates
as a condition of receiving a
public subsidy. The ban applies to
primaries and general elections and is
effective at the start of the next election
cycle, Jan. 1, 2001.
According to written testimony
submitted by David Schultz, a professor
at Hamlin University, parties are now
free to make independent expenditures
on behalf of specific candidates. Schultz
went on to say this is because the
Republican Party of Minnesota was
successful in a lawsuit last fall that
challenged the existing law and now
special interests seeking to influence
campaigns and elections can use the
recent court decision as a new avenue of
influence.
“Most people are not aware there has
been a change,” said Marty. “Minnesota
has been spared from big soft money
expenditures. Opening this loophole
opens the floodgates (for soft money
expenditures),” he said. Marty said his
bill returns the law to what it was before
the court ruling last September.
Sen. Mark Ourada (R-Buffalo)
doubted whether the bill would help. “I
would just as soon not have any independent
expenditures, but if we pass the
bill it will be meaningless, there are
ways around it,” he said. Sen. Roger
Moe (DFL-Erskine) raised the same
issue. “All of us have the same goal, to
limit the amount of money that goes
into the political process. But x amount
of money will get into the political
process some way. We need a good
system of disclosure,” he said.
The committee approved an amendment,
offered by Marty, to the bill to
make it effective immediately after
enactment. However, the bill failed to
gain the committee’s approval on a
voice vote.
Environment and Natural
Resources
Hunting permit bill okayed
The Environment and Natural
Resources Committee, chaired by Sen.
Bob Lessard (DFL-Int’l Falls) met Wed.,
Feb. 8, and okayed a bill tightening
eligibility qualifications for special
Department of Natural Resources
6
(DNR) hunting permits issued to
disabled hunters.
S.F. 2346, authored by Sen. Jane
Krentz (DFL-May Township) permits a
hunter with a permanent physical
disability to use a snowmobile, ATV or
other vehicle to hunt wildlife management
areas as long as the disability is
verified in writing by a physician or
chiropractor. Disabilities are defined as
those that prevent the hunter from
stepping from a vehicle without aid of a
wheelchair, crutches, braces, or other
mechanical support or prosthetic
devices. Also, those disabilities that
prevent the hunter from walking any
distance because of a permanent lung,
heart, or other internal disease that
requires the person to use supplemental
oxygen to assist breathing.
The bill is designed to prevent abuse
of the system that allows the permits,
Krentz said. “The number of applications
has risen from 600 a few years ago
when the DNR first began issuing these
permits to more than 3,000 last year,”
she said. “Many of those were legitimate
applicants; I’m sure some were not.”
Jonathan Leslie, representing Capable
Partners, a non-profit organization of
sportsmen that provides outdoors
opportunities for the physically challenged,
spoke in support of the measure.
“We want to maintain the integrity of
the deer herd and the integrity of the
program for the deserving disabled,” he
said.
John Hauck, also representing
Capable Partners, said the Minnesota
Council on Disabilities also supports the
bill.
The bill was approved and referred to
the floor.
The committee also approved a bill
extending the angling season for
walleye, sauger, northern pike, muskellunge,
large and small-mouth bass by
two weeks statewide. S.F. 2763,
authored by Sen. Pat Pariseau (R-
Farmington), is designed to help
Northern Minnesota businesses suffering
effects of the mild winter by allowing
anglers an extra two weeks, from Feb. 29
to March 15, to remove icehouses from
lakes. The bill was approved and
referred to the floor.
The committee also approved four
bills authorizing land transactions in
various parts of the state.
S.F. 2456, authored by Sen. Mark
Ourada (R-Buffalo), conveys to the
cities of St. Michael and Albertville an
agricultural ditch now located within
those cities’ limits. There were no
natural resource issues and no opposition.
The bill was approved and referred
to the Local and Metropolitan Government
Committee.
S.F. 2444, authored by Sen. Cal
Larson (R-Fergus Falls), conveys to
Stearns County 280 acres of land that
housed the former Sauk Centre Home
School. The bill was approved and
referred to the floor.
S.F. 2033, authored by Sen. Roger D.
More (DFL-Erskine), authorizes Norman
County to sell 2.73 acres of tax-forfeited
land to a private party or parties.
The bill was approved and referred to
the floor.
S.F. 2542, authored by Lessard, allows
Aitkin County to sell about 60 ft. of
tax-forfeited land bordering public
water to a private party or parties. The
bill was approved and referred to the
floor.
Environment and
Agriculture Budget Division
Panel hears need for CREP
Members of the Environment and
Agriculture Budget Division, chaired by
Sen. Jane Krentz (DFL-May Township),
on Fri., Feb. 4, heard a presentation
from the Minnesota Board of Water and
Soil Resources (BWSR) underscoring
the need to support a joint federal-state
conservation program for farmers along
the Minnesota River and its tributaries.
The Conservation Reserve Enhancement
Program (CREP) matches about
2.5 federal dollars for every one state
dollar for various cleanup and protection
projects in the Minnesota River
watershed. Planting trees, shrubs or
grassy buffer zones along environmentally
sensitive lands in the watershed are
among some of the projects. The farmer
receives an up-front payment from the
state for signing a 15-year contract with
the federal government to permanently
remove such lands from production.
Minnesota can enroll up to 100,000
acres, or 1 percent, of agricultural land
in the area by Sept. 30, 2002. This will
require a total of $60 million from the
2000 and 2002 Legislatures in order to
take advantage of the available match-