Ways and Means adopts A4 amendment reallocating ENRTF 1.5% pot; bill sent to general register

The Minnesota House Ways and Means Committee on March 11 adopted an A4 amendment to House File 1218 that reallocates the 1.5 percentage-point funding stream created last year from the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund (ENRTF) into four named buckets and specific projects, then sent the bill as amended to the general register.

The A4 amendment, moved by Representative Sam Heintzeman, divides the 1.5% pot into four shares — 40% for water-quality grants, 40% for trail improvements (split 50/50 between state and local trail projects), 15% for an “outdoor school for all youth” program, and 5% for the original community grants program — and includes a list of named project grants. Representative Heintzeman described the package as a way “to give some meat on the bones” of the newly authorized funding stream, and said, “The A4 amendment modifies a new grant program that was created last year.”

Why it matters

Committee fiscal staff told lawmakers the 1.5% funding stream is worth about $28.18 million in the current biennium. Under the A4 distribution that fiscal estimate produces approximate amounts of $11.2 million for each 40% bucket, $4.2 million for the 15% outdoor school bucket and $1.4 million for the 5% community grants bucket. Brad Hagemeyer of the House Fiscal Analysis Department summarized the total: “In total, there's 28,180,000.00.”

What the amendment does

The amendment specifies how DNR-administered grants drawn from the 1.5% will be allocated and lists several individual grants and projects with amounts, including: - $3,500,000 to the city of Carver for improvement and restoration…