Review of the 2005 Minnesota Legislative Session

July 14, 2005

Dear Sierra Club members, volunteers, and staff:

The only possible way for me to begin this legislative review is to express what a tremendous honor and privilege it has been to represent this laudable organization at the Minnesota capitol. As a Sierra Club member and volunteer for over fifteen years, I have always held that some of the most intelligent, committed, and amazing people I know (and some of my closest friends) are found among the Sierra Club's staff and volunteers. It has been with great pride that I have represented and helped to facilitate such a fantastic team of individuals in our collective efforts to protect Minnesota's environment and pursue the Sierra Club's legislative goals.

The Sierra Club's Legislative Agenda

Last fall, the North Star Chapter's legislative committee identified four primary legislative goals for the 2005 regular session: (1) restore Minnesota's state water quality certification program, (2) protect our state's forests and wetlands from irresponsible off-highway vehicle riders, (3) fund comprehensive transportation solutions such as the Northstar Commuter rail line, and (4) reduce mercury emissions into Minnesota's air and water.

These four goals were chosen because of the strong support and a history of involvement by the Chapter's conservation issue committees. Additionally, our legislative agenda represented a strategic mix of opportunities to both (a) collaborate with allies in the environmental community and (b) solve critical environmental dilemmas that other organizations lacked the resources and ability to address. As is often the case with legislative proposals, we recognized at the outset that some of our agenda items would require several legislative sessions to bring to fruition. Moreover, we realized there would be a need to add to this list of priorities as the legislative session presented us with new demands and unique opportunities.

State Water Quality Certification

In September 2001, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (PCA) was forced to eliminate an important wetlands protection and pollution program due to agency budget cuts. Under this program, called "401 State Water Quality Certification," the PCA has the authority to deny or place conditions on the approval of federal permits to ensure that projects proposed under the federal permits do not impact state water quality standards. In 2001, the PCA began routinely waiving its right to review every federal permit that would have been subject to this 401 Certification review, asking each project applicant to "self assess" whether their project would violate state water quality standards. (The concerns about the discontinuation of the 401 Certification program are well documented in a report entitled "Wetlands at Risk," (pdf, 625k) which was researched and written by volunteers involved in the North Star Chapter's water committee.)

As a result of these concerns, the Sierra Club's water committee supported Representative Ray Cox (R-Northfield) and Senator John Hottinger (DFL-Saint Peter), who served as lead authors of House File (H.F.) 1185 and Senate File (S.F.) 1123 legislation that would (1) establish a progressive fee that would have lead to partial restoration of the 401 Certification program, (2) require the agency to notify project applicants of their responsibility to comply with state water quality standards even if the PCA decided to waive its right to review, and (3) call upon the PCA to make documents relating to 401 Certification available on the Agency's website. Volunteers with the Chapter's Water Committee, including Karen Harder, Judy Helgen, and Sam Goodrich played a critical role throughout the regular session in drafting and reviewing legislation, providing expert testimony, and meeting with key legislators and agency personnel. As a result, the two bills enjoyed extraordinary bipartisan support.

Even though the House environmental policy committee chair did not grant the proposal a hearing in his committee, the legislation received a number of hearings in the Senate and gathered support in the Senate's environmental policy committee, the environment-finance budget division, and the finance committee. The Sierra Club worked diligently with legislators, the PCA, Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDot), Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR), the Association of Minnesota Counties (AMC), residential and industrial developers, and others — ultimately fueling the bill's inclusion in the Senate's "omnibus" environment-finance bill. (An omnibus bill is a comprehensive bill that has numerous provisions that all relate to a particular subject.) Due to the Senate's interest, the Sierra Club's proposal was referred as part of the omnibus bill to a joint conference committee just before the end of the regular legislative session, and remained viable well into the special session.. Unfortunately, following a series of closed-door negiations, the proposal was stripped from the final bill only hours before the final environment-finance bill was passed on the House and Senate floors.

Off-Highway Vehicles

The Sierra Club joined forces with other state-wide environmental organizations, seeking to hold the most reckless and egregious violators of off-highway vehicle (OHV) laws responsible for the damage they cause to Minnesota's forests and wetlands. This coalition worked with lead authors Senator John Mary (DFL-Roseville) and Representative Joe Hoppe (R-Chaska), who introduced S.F. 720 and H.F. 833, both of which called for increased enforcement and strict penalties for OHV violations. Some of the proposals' provisions included increasing fines, providing for reimbursement for property damage from OHV user fees, prohibiting the use of extreme tires, and prohibiting 4x4 "mudder" trucks from driving on state trails. The Chapter's Forest Committee volunteers, including Don Janes, Jamie Juenemann, and Clyde Hanson, attended key legislation meetings, provided critical information for public testimony, and were actively involved in reviewing legislation proposals.

The proactive and common sense solutions put forth by our coalition and legislative allies, however, were met with a great deal of hostility from OHV supporters in the legislature — many of whom have found seats on key committees. In the Senate, the coalition's proposal was defeated by out-state senators after only a few short minutes of debate. Counter-proposals written by OHV manufacturers and clubs were fortunately stymied due to Chairman Marty's strong composure and ability to control the Senate environment policy committee's agenda. Still, some positive OHV legislation was ultimately passed in the Senate, including an initiative brought by Senator Carrie Ruud (R-Breezy Point), which calls for a gas tax study that is ultimately expected to reduce the amount of state money appropriated to OHV clubs and trail development. Additionally, our coalition partners were successful in passing an amendment on the Senate floor that calls for the extension of an account used to reimburse property owners for damage caused by OHVs.

The situation in the House was far different, as the chair of the House environment policy committee is an unabashed advocate of OHVs. He introduced the proposal written by OHV manufacturers and clubs as his own bill, and refused to give our enforcement proposal a hearing. While the manufacturer's proposal has some positive components and stresses the need for education, the bill lacks adequate enforcement mechanisms and ultimately calls on OHV riders and clubs to police their own violations. Despite the coalition's successful work to gain support from legislators on both sides of the aisle, efforts to amend and delete provisions in the manufacturer's OHV bill were repeatedly defeated in House committee hearings due to the pressure created by the bill's author and rural legislators. Ultimately, the manufacturer's proposal worked its way to the House floor, where Representative Ray Cox came to the aid of our coalition and offered three important amendments all of which were unfortunately defeated.

After passing the House floor, the manufacturer's proposal was included in the House omnibus environment-finance bill and, like the Senate's version of this bill, was referred to a joint conference committee near the end of the regular session. As discussed above, the final environment-finance bill was the product of several late-night, closed-door negotiations during the special session, which were brought on by the need to pass a bill that would fund state parks prior to the pending government shutdown. During those negotiations, OHV advocates in the legislature were unfortunately able to secure the necessary votes to retain the manufacturer's proposal in the final omnibus bill.

While the final outcome was not favorable, the Sierra Club and our allies did not give up without considerable fight. Once the bill came back into the public light, the bill was sent back to the original conference committee for ratification before being sent for a vote on the House and Senate Floors. There, our coalition supported Senator Fredrickson in his successful effort to strip the "Ambassador Program" from the final proposal — a program that would have given approximately $200,000 of state money to an OHV lobbying group.

Additionally, when the final bill was brought to the Senate floor, our coalition was temporarily successful in defeating the bill's most harmful section — a provision that opens up 74% of Minnesotas state forests North of Highway 2 to nearly unlimited OHV riding. Senator Marty offered an amendment to strip that provision from the bill, which passed the Senate floor with a substantial margin. Majority leaders in the Senate then moved for a recess, called their members into caucus, and threatened that if the Senate did not pass the environment-finance bill without amendment, the House would in turn tack on more amendments, ultimately leading to the defeat of the bill. As a result, upon re-convening, a motion was made to re-consider Senator Marty's amendment — which was defeated despite the majority vote it had received from the body less than an hour before.

The final bill was then passed by the senate without amendment, and sent to the House floor where it was passed later the same day. The result was a bill that takes Minnesota far backwards in its efforts to enforce responsible OHV riding and to protect our state's public lands. The Sierra Club and our allies have already begun working with officials in the Department of Natural Resources to minimize the potential effects that this legislation will likely have on Minnesota's environment.

Transportation Choices

The Sierra Club had several transportation goals this session, and volunteers from the Chapter's Transportation Committee, including Mat Hollinshead, Christina Danico, and Deb Alper, participated in coalition strategy meetings, lobbied legislators, attended public hearings, drafted testimony, held press conferences, issued news releases and action alerts, and reviewed proposed legislation. Early in the winter, we successfully advocated for the passage of a "bonding bill" that contained significant money for environmental programs and transit expansion in Minnesota. This final capital investment bill authorized approximately $886 million in bonds, with over $100 million of those funds dedicated to environmental and natural resources protection efforts. In addition to this $100 million, the bill provided the full $37.5 million required to secure the necessary federal matching funds to build the Northstar Rail Corridor (one of the Sierra Club's top funding priorities). Further, the bill provided $10 million for the Cedar Avenue Bus Rapid Transit system, $5.25 million for the Central Corridor Project, and $500,000 each for the Rush Line and Red Rock Corridor projects. Overall, this bonding bill will provide large advances in environmental protection and transit opportunities for the people of Minnesota.

After passing the bonding bill, however, our efforts became very focused on securing adequate funding for the operation and maintenance of Minnesota's existing and proposed transit systems. An estimated $360 million is needed annually to operate and maintain critical bus, rail, bicycle, and pedestrian systems in metro and rural areas throughout Minnesota. The legislature has failed in previous years to provide an adequate and stable source of funding for these transportation choices. Additionally, under the Governor's current proposed budget, the metro area transit system faced a budget shortfall of over $60 million dollars, which is the direct cause of recent fare increases and reduced transit service. As a result, the Sierra Club collaborated with our transit partners (a melting pot of environmental, transit, religious, labor, and senior groups) and assisted Representative Ron Erhardt (R-Edina) and Senator Sharon Marko (DFL-Cottage Grove) in their efforts to introduce Transportation Choices 2020 — a legislative initiative that sought to fully fund Minnesota's transit needs. In the end, significant components of the Transportation Choices 2020 proposal were included in the Senate's final omnibus transportation bill due in part to the extremely effective media and outreach work performed by all of our coalition partners.

The real transportation choices success, however, came in mid-May, on the floor of the House, when that body debated and passed a $7.7 billion transportation package. This funding package would prevent the planned cuts by Metro transit and provide additional support to meet transit needs throughout Minnesota. The original House bill did little to fund Minnesota's transit system, but Representative Erhardt offered a bold and courageous amendment that provided stable funding for both roads and transit using a mix of sales and gas taxes and license tab fees. For transit, the amendment generated $105 million annually through a regional sales tax and approximately $100 million annually through a shift of the Motor Vehicle Sales Tax (which would need to be approved as a constitutional amendment through referendum). This amendment, coupled with existing allocations from the state's general fund, was designed to meet the needs of Minnesota's transit system. After an extensive lobbying effort, Representative Erhardt's vote passed the House floor with a 68-66 margin, and the next day the House gave its approval to the improved transportation bill with a bipartisan 72-61 approval.

The House's transportation bill was then sent to the Senate, which adopted the House bill verbatim on a party line vote. The bill then went immediately to the Governor Pawlenty, who quickly vetoed it complete with press conference and a very large red, rubber stamp. The silver lining, however, is in the constitutional amendment — the Governor does not have the authority to veto a proposed constitutional amendment, which will still appear as a referendum in 2006 and could still provide substantial and stable funds for transit in years to come.

Due to their failure to pass a transportation bill in the regular session, it became clear that the House and Senate were unlikely to consider a transportation bill in the special session that provided additional money for roads and transit. As a result, our coalition focused our efforts on filling the $66 million shortfall for transit in the Governor's proposed budget. This was an extremely difficult task, given that negotiations over the budget and the omnibus tax bill were being held almost exclusively between the Governor and a few legislative leaders. In the end, however, there three primary issues being discussed in the final negotiations: education funding, health and human services, and transit. This phenomenon was most certainly due to the hard work of our coalition earlier in the regular session and, in the end, $46 million was allocated to fill the gap for transit ($40 million for metro transit, and $6 million for rural transit). It remains unclear whether the House and Senate will convene for another special session this fall to address the need for a full transportation bill.

Clean Water, Safe Fish, Healthy Kids

The final legislative priority for the North Star Chapter relates to our role as a lead member of the Mercury-free Minnesota Coalition — a group of organizations working to achieve a comprehensive reduction in Minnesota's mercury emissions. Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that has contaminated Minnesota's lakes and rivers. Two-thirds of Minnesota's emissions come from coal burning power plants and taconite processing, with other sources of exposure including vaccines and dental amalgams.

The Mercury-free Minnesota Coalition participated in several legislative hearings regarding the sources and health impacts of Mercury pollution. Moreover, we brought together technology experts who assisted in developing a legislative proposal that calls for a 90% reduction in mercury emissions from coal burning power plants by 2013. Volunteers with the Chapter's Clean Air Committee, particularly co-chair Christopher Childs, played an important role in developing a strong, scientifically sound legislative proposal. Recognizing the large amount of education needed on this issue, the proposal was introduced by Representative Ray Cox (RNorthfield) and Senator Scott Dibble (DFL-Minneapolis) for discussion purposes only this session. Near the close of the legislative session, Representative Carlos Mariani (DFL-Saint Paul) introduced the bill as an amendment to the House energy bill in effort to educate House members. Representative Mariani strategically withdrew the amendment before a vote could be taken, and after securing commitments from key house members that they would consider providing the bill a hearing during the next regular legislative session.

Other Environmental Initiatives

Throughout the session, Sierra Club volunteers and our lobbying team tracked and provided support for a number of environmental initiatives beyond those listed in our legislative agenda. Some of these included:

Renewable Energy Standards. The Sierra Club advocated for a law that would require 20% of Minnesota's energy to be produced by renewable energy sources by the year 2020. The legislation passed in the Senate as part of the Senate energy bill, with the help of volunteer Christopher Childs who spoke with key legislators and assisted in drafting action alerts. The proposal was offered as an amendment to the House environment bill by Aaron Peterson (DFL-Madison), but failed.
Mercury Free Vaccines. As part of the Mercury-free Minnesota initiative, the Sierra Club supported a proposal to ban the use of mercury in vaccines due to their potential adverse effects on developing fetuses and children. The bill received hearings in the House and Senate, but did not pass either body.
Coyote Bounty. The Sierra Club opposed proposals to authorize coyote bounties in Minnesota. While the Sierra Club has no position on hunting or on bounties generally, concerns were raised by Sierra Club volunteer Clyde Hanson, a resident of Lutsen, about the potential for this bill to increase the number of wolves mistakenly shot in Northern Minnesota. The proposal passed in the house, failed in the senate, and was not included in any omnibus policy bills.
Clean Water Legacy Act. The Sierra Club offered limited support to the proposed Clean Water Legacy Act, which seeks to raise approximately $80 million to cleanup and restore contaminated lakes and streams in Minnesota. We continue to support the legislation's policy goals, but have concerns about funding sources that place the greater burden on Minnesota families instead of polluting industries. The policy language passed the Senate during the regular session, which chose to pay for the program from general revenue funds yet to be determined. No proposal made its way to the House floor despite numerous hearings in many committees. Despite a great deal of attention, the Clean Water Legacy Act was not included in any of the laws passed during the special session.
Environmental Review. The Sierra Club continues to oppose efforts to expedite the permitting of facilities by circumventing the environmental review process. Specifically, we opposed legislation that extends the amount of time the Mesabi iron nugget facility can apply for permits and continues to exempt the facility from environmental review. The legislation passed both the House and Senate, and is included in the pending omnibus environment-finance bill. Sierra Club volunteers continue to organize and generate media attention in opposition to the proposed facility.
"Woody Biomass" Facilities. The Sierra Club worked to oppose the development of ironrange facilities that would burn wood products to generate energy, potentially leading to increased timber harvest in Minnesota's state and federal forests. Members of the Chapter's Forest Committee provided review and comment, and Clyde Hanson developed and distributed fact sheets on the issue to key legislators. We successfully prevented the passage of some biomass proposals in House committees, and worked with legislators and other members of the environmental community to improve the language contained in the pending omnibus environment bill.
Urban Sprawl. The Sierra Club has established a strong relationship with Senator Steve Dille (R-Dassel), who has expressed an interest in enacting proactive legislation to address issues of urban sprawl. Volunteers with the Chapter's Land Use and Transportation Committee, including Frank Jossi and Sharon Stephens, reviewed legislative proposals and participated in planning meetings with Senator Dille and other interested parties during the regular session.
Environment-Finance Bill. The Sierra Club joined with the environmental community in acknowledging that state funding for environmental programs has reached its lowest level in over thirty years.
Solar Tax Exemption. The Sierra Club supported proposals to exempt solar energy systems from the state sales tax. Thanks in part to calls to key legislators by volunteer Christopher Childs, the provision is currently included in the omnibus tax bill, which is pending in special session.

The Tools We Used

The Sierra Club's lobbying team relied on existing systems and developed new tools to advance our legislative goals:

Legislative Agenda and Fact Sheets. The Sierra Club produced a five-page brochure outlining our legislative agenda for the regular session, which was distributed to key legislators and staff.
Legislative Website. We launched a series of new web pages early in the session, which displayed information on our legislative agenda, contained links to legislative resources, and provided access to weekly updates.
Legislative Week in Review. Weekly updates on the legislature's progress were electronically distributed to a list of over 50 participants, including the lobbyists of other allied organizations. The updates were also archived and made available via the legislative website.
Action Alerts. Sierra Club staff and volunteers took full advantage of our legislative alert system, which generated thousands of faxes and e-mails from constituents to key legislative targets throughout the session.
Indoor Outing at the Capitol. Sierra Club staff and volunteers teamed up to provide a one-of-a-kind learning experience for Sierra Club members and volunteers. Over thirty individuals participated in our indoor outing at the capitol, where participants engaged in discussions about key environmental legislation in Minnesota, heard from Minnesota legislators, attended a meeting of the Senate environment policy committee, and met with their own elected officials.
Coalition partners and allies. The Sierra Club strengthened its relationships with others in the environmental community by building strong coalitions around each of our priority legislative issues and regularly sharing and receiving information across the environmental lobbying network at the Minnesota capitol.
Mid-term report card. In March, the Sierra Club, in connection with Clean Water Action Alliance and the Minnesota League of Conservation Voters, produced a mid-term report card that described the performance of the House, Senate, and Governor on critical environmental issues. The report card's release followed meetings with House and Senate leadership to thank them for their successes and discuss opportunities for improvement.

The Future of Minnesota's Environment

The 2005 legislative session was defined by both substantial successes and misguided decisions, and its full impact will not be fully revealed until the close of the special session. While the session left much to be desired in terms of improvements for Minnesota's environment and natural resources, the Sierra Club and its allies continue to educate legislators about key environmental issues and to lay the foundation for legislative success in the future. Sierra Club volunteers and committees are already planning for the next legislative session, and efforts are underway to educate the public about the voting records of their elected officials.

With our 22,000 members in Minnesota, a committed volunteer base, and dedicated staff, the Sierra Club remains a leader in environmental advocacy at the Minnesota Capitol. Our ability to influence positive legislative change, both as an independent organization and in conjunction with coalition partners, continues to grow. As a contract lobbyist, I couldn't wish for a finer client, and I look forward to continuing to be a part of the Sierra Club's legislative efforts in the future.

Sincerely,

Brian S. Pasko, Esq.


	About Us \| Newsletter & Action Alerts \| Groups \| Join! \| Volunteer \| Contact Us Copyright © 2003-2008 Sierra Club North Star Chapter. All Rights Reserved.