House passes $2.3 billion ‘lights-on’ omnibus environmental budget bill

A substantial language swap to the omnibus environmental budget bill means a minimal House position moving forward.

The House passed HF2439/SF2077* 129-5 Monday four days after the House Ways and Means Committee inserted the House language. The bill now heads back to the Senate, which passed its far more comprehensive version 35-30 April 29.

The financials between the versions are similar with the House calling for $2.28 billion to fund the DNR, Pollution Control Agency, and the Board of Water and Soil Resources in the 2026-27 biennium and the Senate calling for just a bit more, $2.33 billion.

[MORE: $2.3 billion environment finance bill approved as co-chairs signal work will continue]

But proposed policy differences are great.

For example, the Senate would allow the DNR and Pollution Control Agency to increase fees for their programs and services to raise more revenue. The House version contains no policy provisions and no fee increases.

“This is a bare-bones budget bill for the environment,” said Rep. Josh Heintzeman (R-Nisswa). He co-chairs the House Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee with Rep. Peter Fischer (DFL-Maplewood).

“Co-chair Fischer and I could not reach agreement on a lot of the policy, in fact on any policy, so there is none of that in the bill,” said Heintzeman, the bill sponsor.

Fischer acknowledged that working on this budget bill was “not always easy,” but is gratified that he and Heintzeman found enough common ground “to reach an agreement on how to get the base things done.”

“It’s a lights on-only bill,” Fischer said.

[MORE: View the fiscal change spreadsheets: House; Senate]

Conference committee next

Both Heintzeman and Fischer acknowledged that policy negotiations would be at the forefront in a conference committee with the Senate.

Senate policy provisions that will likely be on the negotiating table include:

• increasing Pollution Control Agency water-use permit fees;
• increasing the aquatic invasive species surcharge for watercraft, and replacing the current flat $10.60 surcharge with one whose amount depends on the size and use of the watercraft;
• increasing the Pollution Control Agency water appropriation permit application fee from $150 to $600; and
• requiring the DNR to seize and forfeit any watercraft that have been tagged by peace officers as abandoned if the condition that led to its tagging has not been remedied within 14 days.

Heintzeman said one policy provision he hopes would be non-controversial and would make it into a conference committee report: HF2824 that would allow a year-round fishing season for largemouth and smallmouth bass. The House environment committee held the bill over April 1.