SAINT PAUL, MN—Today, the Minnesota House passed HF 888 on vote of 80 to 53 The finance bill, which contains more than 80 pages of unnecessary and divisive policy, cuts more than $94 million from last year’s funding level and shifts more than $32 million away from dedicated funds that currently go to protect our air, water, and land. The bill also puts more than $47 million from the Volkswagen fraud settlement at risk by stealing it from the MPCA and giving it to politicians to allocate.
“What was once a bipartisan effort has devolved into the partisan politics of defunding environmental programs in favor of billions of dollars in tax cuts,” remarked Rep. Rick Hansen (DFL-South Saint Paul). “Just as we see at the federal level, Republicans are showing how little they care about our environment and how much they care about tax cuts for big moneyed special interests and the rich.”
The bill has many controversial policy provisions that roll back environmental protections. Those including gutting the Environmental Quality Board, and rolling back progress made under Governor Dayton’s bipartisan buffer initiative by delaying action, limiting where buffers are necessary, and putting the entire cost of buffers onto the government with no land owner responsibility.
“Generations of Minnesotans have enjoyed and fought for our outdoors, our clean water, and all of the natural beauty our state has to offer,” continued Hansen. “This bill not only abandons our commitment to that shared environmental legacy, it goes against decades of progress. The people of Minnesota don’t want to cut, gut, and roll back programs for outdoor recreation or that keep our water and air clean.”
Rep. Rick Hansen (DFL-South Saint Paul) is the DFL-Lead on the House Committee on Environment and Natural Resources Policy and Finance. Rep. Hansen has authored nation leading legislation on pollinator and environmental protections.
-30-