CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT

The legislature has been in session for less than a week and they already have a feather in their cap. An amendment to the Constitution of the State of Minnesota will appear on the ballot in November. The amendment will ask the voters if they want to increase the state’s sales tax by 3/8 of 1% and dedicate it to the outdoors, preservation of natural resources, clean water, and the arts.

This idea has been discussed at the capital for a number of years. As a county commissioner I am well aware that at the local level, county government is charged with management of water resources. Nicollet County has a number of programs in place to deal with water quality issues. We have a county water plan, we are involved in a clean water partnership, we have three septic loan programs, and we are a member of the Minnesota River Board that coordinates activities in the Minnesota River Basin Watershed with explicit goals of improving water quality. I have attended more meetings than I care to remember with the topic of discussion being the problems and roadblocks that are “out there” to prevent us from having a pristine river and lakes and streams free of algae and sediment. We usually talk for hours and the answer always comes back to the point that there is just not enough money to accomplish the tasks. These are important issues. EVERYONE wants clean water. When we come to developing answers to questions such as: how clean does it need to be? Who and what level of government should pay? Should individuals be responsible for paying? How do we spend the money effectively? There appears to be a reluctance to pay for the cost involved so everyone can have clean water.

What if there was a mythical “Perfect County” that was doing everything right? In “Perfect County” all of the individual sewage treatment systems up to snuff. Perfect County has buffer strips on every mile of drainage ditch and on every field that is next to the bluff line. Every feedlot contains all run off and every intensive livestock operation is applying manure at agronomic rates. The Soil and Water Conservation District has installed blind tile inlets in every field. And all of the cities of this mythical county have sewage treatment plants that do not pollute. Rain gardens abound at every business that provides a parking lot with impervious surfaces or has large buildings that mean increased run-off after large rain events. In this mythical county, all homeowners are fined if they deposit grass clippings in the street and (horrors!) dump oil down the street drain. This mythical county would be rated EXCELLENT in abiding by the state statutes that charge counties with management of their water.

There is no “Perfect County”. If it existed, we would still have a polluted Minnesota River because the geographic area of the basin includes parts or all of 37 counties. The key to improving water quality is getting counties to work together and to do it on a watershed basis. Up to now, the approach has been to use a carrot and not a stick. To encourage counties to become like the one described above, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, Board of Soil and Water Conservation, and other agencies have offered incentives in the form of grants to those counties who see needs and want some help to do the job on the local level. The grant money is taxpayer dollars allocated by the legislature to the various agencies. The agencies then funnel the money to the local level or manage the grants. The key here is that the legislature must ALLOCATE the dollars and the funding bills must receive a signature by the governor, not the veto pen.

What is wrong with this picture? Much good work has been done to improve our water quality. But many Minnesota citizens want to see more work done and they want to see it done faster. In some areas, economic growth has suffered. In order to do the work faster, there needs to be an infusion of more dollars. This can be done with the constitutional amendment or it can be done the “old fashioned way”. The old fashioned way is that the citizens make it known to their elected representatives that they want their taxes increased so the money can be used for these programs. Then these causes get an honest and open debate during the budgeting sessions and they compete head on with other important issues facing the state, like education, transportation, health care, and human services.

Allowing certain special interests to get dedicated funding (this is forever unless another amendment is passed to reverse it) through the constitution is usurping the authority and power of the legislature. Furthermore, it lets our present governor off the hook in regard to putting his money where his mouth is. If he truly supports these programs, then he needs to sign bills that fund them. If these are important quality of life issues, and I believe they are; then voters need to hold the people in power accountable or toss them out of office. I believe in the power of the electorate. I believe that the citizens will elect representatives who make choices on behalf of the voters and if it means raising taxes to fund important programs, so be it.

ADDENDUM. If the amendment passes, boards or commissions made up of stakeholders representing natural resources and the arts will be appointed to evaluate, prioritize, and delegate where the funds should be expended. This is another layer of government that would not be needed if the funding came the old fashioned way. end