A Legisaltive Alert from MN Public Lands Coalition
Protect our public lands!
DEAR ALL,
The Minnesota Legislature is on its Passover/Easter Break this week and now is the perfect time to remind legislators about our priorities.
Emails to legislators remain key and perhaps more important at this juncture than ever to secure our gains of increased leverage! NOT ONE ATV trail funding bill or ATV weight increase bill was included in the House Environment Omnibus Finance Bill – a victory for us until we can pass practical measures to help better protect our public lands. But two trail funding bills were included in the Senate version. Your action is needed now!
Next week, the House and Senate omnibus finance bills will begin to travel through the legislative process, which will continue over over the next several weeks (eg; House Ways & Means Committee, Senate Finance Committee, House and Senate floor votes). They ultimately lead to the conference committee stage (typically in May) where the differences are negotiated for final passage and the Governor’s signature.
You contacting key legislators at this point in the legislative process is critical! Below is a list of House DFL Environment Committee members. Please send them a copy, preferably adapted and modified as you see fit, of the letter below ASAP. It's just ONE EMAIL to them all.
When they hear from a good number of people - even if it is a very similar message - it makes an effective impact.
Our goal is to get the House Environment Conference Committee Representatives to oppose inclusion of any ATV trail funding bills and ATV weight increase bill — especially SF593, a funding bill for two ATV trail expansions into highly sensitive areas) in the final Omnibus Environment Finance Bill.
See more information on the session and the status of our bill measures in the SUMMARY below.
THANK YOU AGAIN for your unwavering support and for taking action !
Best & ON we GO!
Susan
________________________________________________________________________________________________
rep.peter.fischer@house.mn.gov
rep.kristi.pursell@house.mn.gov
rep.sydney.jordan@house.mn.gov
rep.rick.hansen@house.mn.gov
rep.leigh.finke@house.mn.gov
rep.alex.falconer@house.mn.gov
rep. david.gottfried@house.mn.gov
SUBJECT LINE- Re: Opposing ATV Trail Expansion & ATV Weight Limit increase language
Dear Chair Fischer and Representatives,
Thank you for your tireless efforts to protect our public lands and support Rep. Pursell’s HF1012.
Although we were disappointed that no practical measures in HF1012 were included in the Environment Omnibus Finance Bill, we greatly appreciate that it included no funding for further ATV trail development or an ATV weight limit increase. Until we have good faith negotiations with opponents on needed common sense environmental protections, we think this pause is necessary to protect public lands for all recreators and Minnesota stakeholders.
To that end, we ask that you do everything in your power to prevent ATV trail expansion language and funding - SF594 / HF281, for example, included in the Senate omnibus environment finance bill – from being included in the final omnibus environment finance conference committee report.
If you have questions about SF594/HF281 and other ATV trail expansion or ATV weight limit increase legislation, please don’t hesitate to contact the Minnesota Public Lands Coalition’s (MnPLC) Susan Schubert at susanpschubert@gmail.com.
Thank you for your consideration and service.
Sincerely,
SUMMARY
Our great House and Senate bill authors, Representative Pursell and Senator McEwen remain fully behind our ongoing efforts to pass measures in HF1012 and SF 1245.
HOUSE of REPRESENTATIVES
We've definitely made an impact this year. Because our bill, HF 1012 was heard in the House, we were able to help block many other ATV bills in the House.
Not one ATV bill, including the weight increase bill, all heard in the House, was included in the final House Environment Omnibus bill. That is a victory !
We will build on this leverage until we get common sense measures on the books to better protect our public lands and waters from the ongoing building boom of motorized trails across the state.
SENATE
Our bill was not heard in the Senate. Two ATV bills were heard, SF 593 & SF 594 because they " had the votes" in the Senate Environment Committee.
The goal in Conference Committee is to get the House Environment Conference Committee Representatives to oppose including these bills in the Final Environment and Finance Omnibus Bill.
Any questions, as always, just shoot me an email !
Best & On we GO!
Susan Perrin Schubert
MN Public Lands Coalition