There are just a couple weeks of the Minnesota legislative session remaining, although DFL legislative leaders have a set a goal to finish session before the constitutional adjournment date of May 22. At the time of this update, there are still outstanding agreements that need to be reached on several state budget areas that have an impact on agriculture, including environment and energy, taxes, capital investment, transportation, health and human services, and commerce, but agreements have been reached on agriculture and dedicated funds for environmental projects (Legacy).
In late March, legislative leaders and Governor Walz announced a joint budget agreement with spending targets for various finance committees. The agriculture committees were given a spending target of $48 million, in addition to $100 million dedicated to broadband for rural development.
Although the House and Senate agriculture committees passed bills using the same spending target, a conference committee was needed to reconcile the differences between the two bills, and the committee reached an agreement over the weekend. We are still waiting for the final conference committee report, but here are a couple of notable finance provisions. It is important to note the finance amounts are the total for the two-year budget period.
Biofuels infrastructure – $6,750,00 for the Biofuels Infrastructure Program at the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA). This budget item is a $750,000 increase over base.
Soil health – $1,250,000 for a Soil Health Finance Assistance program at MDA. This program was first funded as a pilot program in the previous budget cycle at $500,000, and applications for the program far exceeded available funds. In addition to the general fund appropriation for the program, an additional $3.5 million was included in the Legacy budget using dedicated funds from the Clean Water Fund.
Broadband – $100 million for the Border-to-Border Grant Program to continue the build-out of broadband across Minnesota.
Grain Indemnity fund – $10 million to establish a grain indemnity account to reimburse grain producers when an elevator or grain purchaser is insolvent and cannot cover commitments for grain purchases. The indemnity account would max out at $15 million, and the fee for grain producers would not trigger until the account balance was at or below $8 million. The language does include a refund provision, which would enable a grain producer to request a refund from MDA for any fees paid on grain sold. We will provide a deep dive into this new program in future posts.
Noxious weeds – $1,600,000 for noxious weed grants to combat invasive species and protect Minnesota crops.
International trade – $200,000 to increase the capacity at MDA for international trade staff to help expand markets for Minnesota agricultural products.
Source: mncorn.org
Categories: Minnesota, Government & Policy