Senate Environment Committee advances 2025 legacy omnibus with targeted cuts and new carve-outs

The Minnesota Senate Environment, Climate and Legacy Committee on March 27 advanced Senate File 2865, the 2025 legacy omnibus bill, after a multi-hour hearing that reviewed appropriations across the four legacy funds and adopted a series of amendments.

The bill would allocate money from the legacy sales tax dedicated by the 2008 Legacy Amendment and sets funding in four articles for Outdoor Heritage, Clean Water, Parks and Trails, and Arts & Cultural Heritage. Committee staff said the DE delete-all amendment presented to the committee reflects a February forecast adjustment that reduced available dollars and led to proportional and targeted reductions across the four funds.

Why it matters: the legacy funds finance habitat restoration, clean water projects, parks and trails, and arts and cultural programs statewide. Committee briefing materials said the DE amendment contains roughly $776,000,000 (first‑year figures described to the committee) in appropriations for the upcoming biennium and preserves the statutory 5% fund balance in each fund.

Spreadsheet review and fund-level changes Mr. Mueller, committee staff, walked members through the spreadsheet included in the packet (dated 03/26) and summarized the major changes. He told the committee the February forecast included a one-time downward adjustment of about $31.7 million due to a calculation error at the Minnesota Management and Budget office, which reduced carryforward available to the four legacy funds and required reductions in the DE amendment.

The committee heard the appropriation totals by article and program-level adjustments: the Outdoor Heritage Fund was presented with about $162,111,000 in fiscal year 2026 (staff noted the Outdoor Heritage Fund is typically appropriated for the first year only); the Clean…