Capitol Update for March 13, 2009

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This week’s update from lobbyist John Tuma:

“For the American people thus to allow such calamities to habitually occur, without adopting any adequate means for their prevention causes our country to be regarded as in some respects only semi-civilized.”

-General Christopher C. Andrews, August 22, 1894*

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One of Minnesota’s most flamboyant and persistent conservation champions was former Civil War General Christopher C. Andrews.  Minnesota’s State Legislature was ruled by lumber during the latter half of the 1800s.  It was in the early 1880s that General Andrews returned to Minnesota after distinguished service as a diplomat for the United States to such countries as Norway, Sweden and Brazil.  It was during his visit to Scandinavian countries that he realized the extent to which America was destroying its vast timber resources due to a lack of a sustained forestry vision.

The General almost prophetically spoke the above words regarding the reoccurring calamity of forest fires as a result of bad forest management only nine days before the great Hinckley fire.  In the wake of this human tragedy, he pushed for a scientifically driven state forestry post.  The State Legislature, under the pressure of this great tragedy needed to act, but it was still controlled by the lumber industry.  Instead of a state forestry post as advocated by Andrews, they created the post of Chief Fire Warden.  Not to be outdone, Andrews pushed for his appointment to the position and won.  Starting at age 65, he transformed this position over the next 27 years into one focused on forest conservation and sustainable management.  He never stopped pressing the concepts of forestry protection until his death in 1922 at the age of 92.  He truly gave vision to a sustainable forest for Minnesota. The state honored him by naming a state forest after him just outside of Willow River.

During the Civil War, Andrews distinguished himself as a commander of the Minnesota Third Infantry.  In one of the most successful campaigns in the western theater, Andrews commanded the Minnesota Third as they marched on the Arkansas capitol of Little Rock.  Along with several other units under General Frederick Steele, they undertook a 100-mile march in the sweltering southern heat of August.  Despite being plagued by debilitating sickness, the Minnesota Third participated in one of the most renowned out-maneuverings of the Confederate Army.  They helped capture Little Rock against a well-entrenched opposition losing very few soldiers.  Andrews and the Minnesota Third remained on as the occupying force of Little Rock, where he gained renown as a fair and benevolent commander.

My favorite Civil War painting in the Capitol, which hangs above the receptionist’s desk in the Governor’s office, is the one by Stanley M. Authurs of the Minnesota Third Infantry entering Little Rock.  It shows an exhausted drummer boy peaceably staggering up the road into Little Rock with the remainder of the victorious Minnesotans stretched out in the background coming up from the Arkansas River.  After marching in this sweltering heat for two weeks, the troops look tired but victorious.  Behind the young drummer boy rides the confident and strident commander of their unit, Christopher Columbus Andrews, the future apostle of Minnesota forestry.

This week the 2009 Minnesota Legislature is surely feeling like they are on a forced march through adverse circumstances.  Now that the February forecast is out, the numbers they need to work from to balance the budget are known.  The $4.57 billion budget deficit they face probably does look like an entrenched military force.  The deficit they must solve is almost 12% of the discretionary general fund budget.  The hope for a peaceable bipartisan budget resolution seems to be evaporating with the Minnesota snow this week.  The Republican House Caucus found an advance copy of a proposed Senate DFL budget proposal lying around the Capitol and hastily called a press conference on Thursday lambasting the DFL for considering tax increases and cuts in education funding.  The DFL Senate Caucus quickly called a press conference later in the day to roll out their budget proposal which called for an across-the-board 7% cut in state spending and $2 billion in “new revenue.”  They indicated this new revenue would be a combination of taxes and fee increases.  They were quick to point out that the Governor’s budget would probably result in significant property tax increases and it relied on some interesting debt schemes.  The hopes that this would be a peaceable bipartisan campaign to solve our state’s deficit are starting to fade.

The good news in the effort to preserve the constitutional amendment funding was that the budget deficit did not grow from our November forecast.  Thanks to the stimulus money, the budget deficit improved slightly.  It is the position of the conservation community that programs for water, conservation and parks should only take a proportional reduction in their budgets in order to avoid the new constitutional money replacing that in the general fund.  The Constitution is very clear that the new money should not simply fill in budget cuts, but actually result in increased funding for restoring and protecting our Great Outdoors.

The only collaborative agenda issue that made any formal progress this week was the Building Sensible Communities legislation, SF549/HF898.  On Friday last week, our chief authors Rep. Frank Hornstein and Sen. Scott Dibble called together several stakeholders from the city and county governments to resolve any objections they had to land  use planning provisions in the bill.  The old Civil War commander of Little Rock, General Andrews, would have been proud of the skillful negotiations of the chief authors.  They cleared up the most serious objections that local units of government had regarding the bill.  As a result, on Monday the Senate State and Local Government Operations and Oversight Committee endorsed SF549.  The bill now moves on to the Education Policy and Oversight Committee in the Senate.  In the House it still awaits hearing in the State and Local Government Committee.

The quest to ensure safe mining to protect our water continues to have a vigorous debate within the general public, but little happening at the Legislature.  One of our bill’s co-authors, Rep. Denny McNamara (R- Hastings), introduced HF1440 by himself on Monday.  HF1440 includes most of the language regarding financial assurance, but does not include language prohibiting water treatment after the mine closure.  He introduced it with the goal of trying to ignite some discussion on different options to settle this controversy.  We believe the bill introduced by Sen. Jim Carlson (DFL- Eagan) and Rep. Alice Hausman (DFL-St. Paul) accomplishes a meaningful balance of water protection and jobs.  We’ll continue to push for meetings with key stakeholders within the Legislature to put together a meaningful package to protect Minnesota’s future and our natural resources.

The Minnesota Clean Cars legislation will have some key tests next week in the House State and Local Government Committee and in the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee.  The most interesting opposition we face with the Clean Cars Bill is the belief by some legislators that under the leadership of President Obama, the federal government will be establishing stronger emission standards; therefore, the states don’t need to lead.  This flawed logic is often an easy one for the Legislature to buy into.  Even if the President was able to push through new standards, they probably won’t go into place for several years.  In that case, it would make sense for Minnesota to join the other 14 states to get out in front so our consumers may get the most efficient and cleanest vehicles manufactured starting in model year 2013.

It’s no different than when General Andrews fought the entrenched lumber interests.  Good logic doesn’t always prevail in the legislative process.  It often takes long and arduous battles to prevail.  Therefore, we need to take a cue from the old General when he faced those entrenched oppositions.  Keep on persistently marching regardless of the conditions.

*”The Prevention of Forest Fires.”  Proceedings of the American Forestry Congr
ess: Washington, DC, 1894.  Special thanks to Anna M. Rice for her paper “General Christopher C. Andrews: Leading the Minnesota Forestry Revolution.”  Senior Division Historical Paper, National History Day 2002 Competition,  Central High School, St. Paul, Minnesota; presented online by the History Cooperative, The History Teacher – Volume 36 Issue 1.

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