Dennis Anderson: Beware of legislators bearing funds

The economy is tanking for people, and government; witness Minnesota's approximately $5 billion budget deficit.

But are legislators being any more careful with your money? You decide.

Example 1: On Jan. 16, Len Price was visiting with Minnesota State Parks Director Courtland Nelson when Price's phone rang. The caller told Price that Minnesota Rep. Jean Wagenius, DFL-Minneapolis and co-chair of the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR), had just offered an amendment to that group's finalized project list that would award the Minnesota Conservation Corps (MCC) -- the nonprofit group Price oversees -- $1.6 million.

What, the caller asked, did Price and the MCC (annual budget: about $3 million) intend to do with the money?

"I said I didn't know anything about it," Price said Thursday. "It was news to me."

Price, a Woodbury DFLer and retired teacher, served in the Legislature for 20 years before losing his senate seat in 2002. He believes deeply in the MCC's mission to provide hands-on land and water conservation work to state and federal agencies while offering young people and adults chances to live and work outdoors in summer.

He doesn't want to burn bridges with Wagenius or other legislators. But the truth is, Price said, he hadn't asked for the money, and didn't have plans for it if it was awarded.

"That was the end of it," Price said. "I didn't hear anything more about it until I got the call."

Wagenius' proposed funding to the MCC angered a majority of the 17-member LCCMR, particularly its seven citizen members. They had worked much of the past year winnowing about $25 million in project finalists from an original group of more than 150 proposals.

Then, as the commission met Jan. 16 to vote on their project proposal list, Wagenius offered her amendment, which would have canceled $1.6 million (and more) in habitat acquisition and development projects.

Wagenius told her fellow LCCMR members that unless changes were made to the project list -- such as the one she proposed -- it would be vulnerable to alterations in the Legislature. The LCCMR voted Wagenius' amendment down anyway, and the project list is now in the Legislature awaiting an uncertain fate.

Example 2: Price's phone rings again in January. This time it's Rep. Rick Hansen, DFL-South St. Paul. He tells Price he wants to meet with him, so Price goes to Hansen's office.

That's about all Price knew about what Hansen had planned until he read House File 345, authored by Hansen and, among other representatives, Bob Gunther, R-Fairmont.

The bill awards the MCC $5 million over two years, with most of the money flowing through state agencies such as the Department of Natural Resources, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and the Board of Water and Soil Resources.

All $5 million would come from funds raised by the increased 3/8 of 1 percent sales tax approved when the Clean Water, Land and Legacy constitutional amendment was passed in November.

A total of $1 million would come from the fund overseen by the Lessard Outdoor Heritage Council -- which has yet to hear testimony on proposals to spend $78 million in fish and wildlife funds, and whose recommendations are not due to the Legislature until April 1.

The kicker? Hansen and Gunther are among four legislators on the 12-member Lessard Council. Both were appointed by House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, whose chamber is quickly reducing itself to joke status among those who are paying attention.