Ellen Anderson: The most feasible way to fund environment

Having seen how budgets are made, I'm convinced of the need for a constitutional amendment.

By ELLEN ANDERSON

Last update: December 14, 2007 - 6:26 PM

I have always been a strong advocate for clean water and have authored bills with funding for parks and trails and for places like Como Park, a statewide treasure with more than a million visitors every year. But for years I was only lukewarm to the idea of dedicating a small portion of sales taxes to clean water and the outdoors with a constitutional amendment, for all the reasons expressed in Lori Sturdevant's column ("Budgeting by ballot? I'm still not persuaded," Dec. 9).

That all changed last year. After becoming chair of the state Senate's Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources Budget committee, I saw firsthand how the budget pie is divided up. It really hit home that the state's major public responsibilities are education, transportation and health care -- and that there's usually not enough to go around. The environment is always at the bottom of the list. That explains why funding for environmental protection and natural resources is at a 30-year low in Minnesota, even though Minnesotans value these so much.

We need more public investment in these areas, and I believe eventually our state will get past the "no new taxes" stranglehold. But I don't see the Legislature and governor raising taxes for clean water and the environment. I've become convinced that we will not adequately take care of our environmental priorities out of our normal biennial budgeting process.

Moreover, we should put a dedicated source of funding into the Constitution because it's urgent. If we don't act now we have so much to lose -- permanently. We expect a million more people to live in the metropolitan area by 2020, and we need those people to keep our economy vibrant -- but at the same time, that means by 2020 we will lose another million acres of natural land to development. We need to set aside green spaces now or they just won't be there for the next generation. All of the people in our growing areas of the state need places to be outside, walk, bike and fish, and they need to be close to home. We can't just have wilderness and parkland in the less populated parts of our state. In the ideal world described by Lori Sturdevant and Sen. Tom Bakk, we would wait for the political climate to change so we could put a higher budget priority on the environment. But I'm convinced we don't have the luxury of waiting while acres of woods, wetlands and prairies are bulldozed every day.

Finally, protecting clean water, preserving natural lands and habitat, and having parks for all of us to enjoy is a core part of Minnesota's heritage; its part of who we are as a people. It's a huge part of what makes Minnesota great, despite cold winters and swarms of mosquitoes. Our natural heritage and attachment to the great outdoors is important enough to be a legacy issue that belongs in the Constitution.

We've also done good work in the last year to broaden the focus of the constitutional amendment so it will appeal to all Minnesotans. Some hunt and fish; some want to go for a walk in the park; some live in a city highrise and don't enjoy nature hikes but want to ensure their children have safe drinking water. The arts and cultural legacy in the amendment bring in the other piece of the budget pie that is always easy to be sacrificed for more critical issues. Together, protection of our natural treasures and our cultural gifts may not be necessities of life like good roads, bridges, schools and health care, but they make life worth living.

Ellen Anderson, DFL-St. Paul, is a member of the Minnesota Senate.

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