$2.3 billion environment finance bill approved as co-chairs signal work will continue

The House Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee unveiled its 2026-27 omnibus finance bill Thursday, but committee co-chairs emphasized it is just a starting point.

That much was clear by the approved delete-all amendment to HF2439, which is a $2.28 billion omnibus finance bill that contains no policy provisions. And it includes none of Gov. Tim Walz’s recommended operating adjustments to the Pollution Control Agency, the Department of Natural Resources, Board of Water and Soil Resources, and other agencies and boards the committee funds.

Approved by the committee, its next stop is the House Ways and Means Committee.

Both committee co-chairs, Rep. Josh Heintzeman (R-Nisswa) and Rep. Peter Fischer (DFL-Maplewood), called it a “bare bones” bill that would meet the House deadline for committees to approve finance bills, but each also pledged they would continue to work to finalize the budget numbers and to agree on which policy bills heard earlier by the committee would eventually go into the bill.

“We will find the common ground that we need to find to get an agreement,” said Heintzeman, the bill sponsor.

Some financial clarity

House leadership gave the committee a negative $10 million budget target compared to the February base.

[MORE: View the fiscal changes spreadsheet; detailed spreadsheet]

As specified in both the amended bill and the two spreadsheets accompanying it, the committee has made some financial decisions, namely that the $10 million reduction would come in the form of:

• $5 million from a 2024 appropriation to the DNR for enhancing prairies and grasslands and restoring wetlands on state-owned wildlife management areas;
• $3 million from a 2025 appropriation to the PCA for a local government climate resiliency and water infrastructure grant program; and
• $2 million from a 2025 appropriation to the Board of Water and Soil Resources for conservation easements and restoration and enhancement for purposes of climate resiliency, adaptation, and carbon sequestration.

Public testimony

Public input came in the form of 17 letters to the committee and nearly a dozen in-person testifiers Thursday.

The first three testifiers are leaders of the three agencies that would take the $10 million in cuts.

The frustrations DNR Commissioner Sarah Strommen has are similar to those expressed by the heads of the Pollution Control Agency and Board of Water and Soil Resources.

Each said the cuts would have significant impacts that would be visible to the general public and be exacerbated by their agencies not receiving the governor’s recommended operating increases.

The governor recommends $16.9 million in the 2026-27 biennium to help the DNR adress operating cost increases.

“Without the governor’s proposed operating adjustment, Minnesotans will experience service erosion in the coming years,” Strommen said, citing reduced upkeep and cleaning of campgrounds and visitors’ centers in state parks, plus reduced camping seasons and park customer service hours.

Katrina Kessler, commissioner of the Pollution Control Agency, said that without the governor’s recommended $12.16 million operational increase for 2026-27, the agency’s core work of issuing environmental permits, monitoring pollution and cleaning up contamination would be significantly slowed.

John Jaschke, director of the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources, said the core work the board does to implement state soil and water conservation programs and wetland policies would be significantly reduced by the $2 million cut in 2025 funding, plus the absence of the governor’s recommended $463,000 biennial increase for operational increases.

All three also expressed their willingness to work with the committee in the days ahead.

“I think there’s room for creativity here,” Kessler said. “I look forward to continued conversations with the committee about a mix of funding and policy proposals that can accomplish what I think we are all trying to do together.”