Dedicated funding's chances just got a lot better

The chance that Minnesotans in November will pass a constitutional amendment to intensify conservation statewide took a significant leap forward late last week.

The House, according to DFL Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, has become "actively engaged" -- her words -- in development of a citizens-legislative council to help guide spending of fish and wildlife habitat money if the amendment passes.

Hunting and angling groups have said a citizens-legislative council is needed to oversee spending of about $91 million to ensure full support among sportsmen and sportswomen of the constitutional amendment proposal in November.

"Hunters and anglers want to be assured they will have significant influence over how this money will be spent," said Garry Leaf, executive director of sportsmenforchange.org.

The Senate already has passed a bill this session that establishes a citizens-legislative council. But the House -- interpretations vary here -- has either been disengaged from the council idea, aloof to it, or simply in opposition.

In an interview Friday, Kelliher indicated strongly the House's position has changed.

"I don't know timelines, but it's all moving pretty quickly," she said. "Obviously the Senate has moved a proposal forward, and I think now that a lot of members of the House are also willing to become engaged."

That changed in part last week, she said, following a meeting with Don McMillan, president of the Minnesota Outdoors Heritage Alliance; Joe Duggan, Pheasants Forever vice president of development and public affairs; Tom Landwehr, associate state director of conservation for the Nature Conservancy, and Ron Schara, retired Star Tribune outdoors columnist and host of the "Minnesota Bound" TV show.

"We had a very good discussion at the meeting about what people's concerns are, and I think that afterward I understood a lot better why people who hunt and fish feel they have to have a say about these appropriations," Kelliher said.

The speaker said she has since talked to key House members, including Assistant Majority Leader Frank Moe, DFL-Bemidji, and Rep. Jean Wagenius, DFL-Minneapolis, among others, telling them, "I think we need to acknowledge this in a more overt way."

Placing the amendment on the November ballot has been the goal for about 10 years for a broadening coalition of hunters and anglers. The intent has been to mimic, to the degree practical, the conservation management and delivery system practiced in Missouri. It's there that a fraction of the state sales tax is dedicated to conservation, and where a citizens commission sets policy for the Department of Conservation and hires and fires its director.

Minnesota won't achieve a system like that any time soon. But it does need a system whereby conservation funding is increased significantly, one in which the funding is dedicated and not subject to year-by-year ups and downs, and in which citizens can play active roles in the years ahead.

Specifically, the constitutional amendment proposal, if passed, would increase the state sales tax three-eighths of 1 percent, costing the average Minnesota family about $1 a week.

The fractional increase would raise the $91 million annually for fish and wildlife habitat, a like sum for clean water, and another $91 million for parks, trails, the arts and cultural heritage.

Already a variety of coalitions are working to build voter support for the constitutional amendment. More about these will follow in this space in coming weeks and months.

For now, all eyes are on the Legislature and particularly the House as they move toward passage of a bill establishing a citizens-legislative council to oversee increased fish and wildlife habitat money, should the constitutional amendment pass in November.

Want more information?

• www.sportsmenforchange.org

• www.duckrally.org

• www.yesformn.org