Dec. 28—EAST GRAND FORKS — Helping northwest Minnesota communities streamline agricultural policy and support rural water supplies will be one of the top priorities for District 1 lawmakers as Minnesota enters the next legislative session is approaching, but the prospect of tight margins and passing a state budget still looms large.
The Minnesota Legislature meets on January 14
possible bond in the Minnesota House, depending on the outcome of pending litigation,
and the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party with a one-seat majority in the Senate, the Legislature will have tight margins.
“I think the budget is really the rock in the pot for the Legislature moving forward,” said Rep. John Burkel, R-Badger. “With a tie in the House of Representatives, I mean, in terms of the excitement in the Legislature, there’s just a lot of firsts.”
For Steve Gander this will be his first session. Gander, the outgoing mayor of East Grand Forks,
was elected to the seat of Rep. Deb Kiel, R-Crookston,
who did not stand for re-election. He said he still has a lot to learn before the session takes place.
“They say it’s like drinking water from a fire hose, and it really is,” Gander said. “I remember walking into City Hall on the first day I was mayor and looking and thinking, ‘Everyone in this building knows my job better than I do, including the custodian,’ so I have to ramp up my learning curve as quickly as possible and hopefully Let us not see too much ignorance along the way.”
During the upcoming session, both Burkel and Gander will serve on the House Agriculture Finance and Policy Committee. In addition, Burkel will serve as Republican vice chair of the Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee and the Legacy Finance Committee. Gander will also serve on the Human Services Finance and Policy Committee.
Burkel hopes the committees can help shape substantive policy for Minnesotans.
“I thought the committee work we did was lax and I’m hopeful that committees will have a little more relevance on this issue,” Burkel said. “I think we’re going to see bills with substance, especially budget bills that matter in a really legitimate conversation about what the necessary functions of government are.”
The dynamics of a potentially tied House are also a concern for the Minnesota Senate.
“Especially if we start slowly with these lawsuits, I’m not planning a vacation in June,” said Sen. Mark Johnson, R-East Grand Forks. “There are a lot of needs in this state, not just in my district, but across the state. Given the budget issues right now… there’s going to be a lot happening in St. Paul.”
Johnson, who also leads the Republican caucus in the Minnesota Senate, said it is critical to prioritize policies that actually work and are cost-effective for the state. Gaining support for more than just rural water and other infrastructure projects will be a priority, especially since the state failed to pass a bill for projects last session.
“We have a drinking water project that goes through the district and there is a regional supply that we hope to implement,” Johnson said. “There are a lot of needs in this state, not just in my district, but across the state.”
While it’s not a traditional year of bonding, Johnson remains open to the idea of it. With the prospect of having to approve the budget for the next biennium, much is still up in the air at the moment. The Legislature almost always has a special session to pass a budget, which it must do by June 30 or risk a state government shutdown.
As the budget looms, achieving substantive improvements in the state’s agricultural policy is one of the key concerns.
“There’s a younger generation coming in, looking at mom and dad jumping through these crazy regulatory hoops and saying, ‘You know what? That’s not for me. I’m doing something else,'” Gander said. “That’s another family farm lost.”
Johnson added that many aspects of agricultural and business policy are burdensome, especially given the area’s proximity to North Dakota.
“In East Grand Forks, companies are jumping over to the other side of the river (Red River, into North Dakota) and they’re citing some of these issues,” Johnson said. “(With) the cumbersome nature of these things, there are policy things that we could do in the future that would really help and solve what the Democrats have done over the last two years with those extreme policies.”
Burkel hopes to help facilitate licensing and wildlife management reform by supporting depredation payment programs.
“Payments for the depredation of wolves and elk are a big deal,” Burkel said. “The annual report on wolf and elk depredation rates to farmers and ranchers here (shows those funds) have been depleted again.”
Not only helping northwest Minnesota, but supporting the Twin Cities metro and helping restore the metro’s image to people in Greater Minnesota is something Gander hopes to pursue.
“People used to go for a Twins game, Vikings game, Wild game, and the feeling I’ve heard knocking on the door here is that (they’re) ashamed of what happened in the Twin Cities and there isn’t any interested in I’m going back,” Gander said. “If we could bring back the fun that people in greater Minnesota have when they go to the Twin Cities… Minneapolis, St. Paul is a facility for the state of Minnesota. .’
Johnson, Burkel and Gander represent District 1, which encompasses the far northwest corner of the state.
