| Except for the bad legislative session, Satveer was very proud of obtaining money for the Legacy Amendment which passed last fall.
"This is going to be a massive injection of money for conservation programming," Satveer related. He's been getting calls from across the nation asking him how we did it.
"The lesson here is that people prefer dedicated taxes," he explained. This is opposed to putting new revenue in the general fund which is how many progressives typically want to deal with it. New revenue in the general fund provides the state with more flexibility, but according to Satveer "people see the real effects of dedicated taxes and prefer them."
Another important bill that passed prohibts the state from selling state lands to reduce deficits, SF353. Can't you imagine Republicans selling our parks to pay down deficits?
Satveer explained that back in '05 Republicans passed a bill allowing future sales of state land to be put into the general fund. I personally think this is especially ridiculous because land values have decreased as the economy plummeted. What if the state was counting on selling some land at a specific price and had already used that money in a previous year's general fund expenditures.
Thanks to Satveer and many others, any proceeds from land sales will go back into buying more land. Logical, no?
He mentioned that he got a variety of game and fish as well as outdoor bills passed this session. He recommended this press release rather try and explain them all to me.
He did want to point out a few others.
"This session was the first time ever that ATV groups (All-Terrain Vehicle), conservation groups and the DNR all testified in favor of something," he related. Satveer wrote a bill that created a limited forfeiture provision for the worst ATV offenders. Basically, those ATV riders that make all other ATV riders look bad can be punished now.
"Another example is Minnesotans over 90 can fish for free," he continued.
"We also worked on innovative ways to deal with invasive species," he said. "We passed a bill so that people can fish for invasive species like carp [as an example] with bows at night."
I asked about the potential effect of unallotment on our parks and natural resources.
"It's not going to be as much," he explained. "Mainly because these things are not tied to the general fund. They're fee heavy. Plus we cut quite a bit from the DNR and PCA budgets already. We're going to see the cuts predominantly in healthcare and education."
Finally, I asked him about funny, ironic or comical moments at the legislature this session.
"Wow. I've got to say that something comical happens every day," he replied. "I was with some friends watching a live comedy show and said to them that I could write a comedy routine as good as this based upon my job." |
"There's going to be a real sea change in Minnesota culture," said Sen. Satveer Chaudhary (DFL-Fridley). "We probably won't realize it until hospitals close and property taxes skyrocket."
