House vote a boost for outdoors

04/26/2006

BY BILL SALISBURY
Pioneer Press

Minnesota voters could decide next fall whether to earmark a fraction of the state sales tax for game and fish, clean water, parks and the arts under a constitutional amendment approved by the state House of Representatives on Tuesday.

But voters won’t get a chance to decide the issue unless the House and Senate resolve a fundamental disagreement. The House voted to take the money out of the state’s existing 6.5 percent sales tax, while the Senate would ask voters whether to increase the sales tax.

Despite the difference, outdoors groups and other proponents said the 78-55 House vote in favor of the constitutional amendment was a major step toward guaranteeing a steady stream of money for natural resources. It was the first time the House voted for the proposal since it was introduced in 1999. The measure cleared the Senate for the first time earlier this month.

“I’m feeling better and better about this all the time,” said the bill’s chief House sponsor, Rep. Tom Hackbarth, a Cedar Republican who has championed hunting, fishing and environmental causes.

Conservationists have been arguing for years that the state’s wildlife habitats and waters need a dedicated source of revenue because legislators have placed a higher priority on spending for education, health care and transportation.

Hackbarth’s bill calls for dedicating three-sixteenths of 1 percent of the state’s existing 6.5 percent sales tax to conservation, parks and the arts.

If approved by voters in the Nov. 7 election, it would provide an estimated $135 million a year. Sixty percent of the money would go to conserve and provide access to game and fish habitat, and 30 percent would be set aside to clean up lakes, streams and rivers. The remaining 10 percent would be divided among parks and trails, the arts and public broadcasting.

Hackbarth originally proposed using one-eighth of 1 percent of the sales tax for game and fish programs and providing hunters access to private lands. The bill was expanded to other areas and the price tag increased to win the support of a coalition of environmentalists, arts advocates and parks users, in addition to the hunters and anglers who led the charge for the constitutional amendment.

Rep. Dennis Ozment, R-Rosemount, persuaded the House to pass an amendment adding clean water projects and parks and trails to the mix of programs to be funded under the legislation.

Rep. Mike Charron, R-Woodbury, proposed an amendment to include the arts and public broadcasting.

“Without the arts, the Twin Cities is a cold Des Moines, no disrespect intended,” Charron argued. “Without the arts, Minnesota is a North Dakota without missile silos.”

The House also tacked on a provision to freeze all state taxes for seven years if the constitutional amendment takes effect. Rep. Mark Olson, R-Big Lake, proposed the freeze after Democrats argued future legislators would feel compelled to increase other taxes for education and health care because the amendment would cut into the money available for those programs.

After the Republican majority voted for Olson’s proposal in the House, many Democrats who had supported the constitutional amendment announced their opposition.

Sen. Dallas Sams, the amendment’s Senate sponsor, welcomed its passage by the House. But he said Olson’s tax freeze “can’t stay on” the proposal. He predicted a House-Senate conference committee would quickly drop the freeze from the legislation.

Sams, a Democrat from Staples, said conferees would have a more difficult time compromising between the Senate tax increase and the House proposal to carve out part of the existing sales tax. The Senate passed a version of the amendment that would ask voters whether to increase the state sales tax by three-eighths of 1 percent to 6.875 percent. That would raise an estimated $270 million a year and cost taxpayers 37.5 cents for every $100 they spend on taxable goods.

Sams predicted that if the money for hunting and fishing projects comes out of existing taxes, a wide range of special-interest groups representing cities, counties and school districts would have an incentive to try to defeat the amendment at the polls.

“You’re going to have lots of people out there saying ‘Hey, you’re taking our money from us,’” he said.

But Hackbarth said he is absolutely opposed to boosting taxes.

Despite the dispute over taxes, a spokesman for the outdoors groups supporting the constitutional amendment said he’s “very encouraged. I think we can find a compromise on the tax issue,” said Lance Ness, president of the Fish and Wildlife Alliance.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty also hailed the bill’s passage. “The House vote today represents important and needed progress for our great Minnesota outdoors and clean water,” he said in a statement. “Now the House and Senate must reconcile their differences so the people of Minnesota have a chance to vote.”