DEDICATED FUNDING FOR CONSERVATION AND CULTURAL HERITAGE

WHAT IS IT?
In November of 2008, on the 150th anniversary of our state, Minnesota voters will have an historic opportunity to make a nationally prominent move to preserve our environment and cultural heritage that will bring benefits for the next 25 years. They will be asked following question on the ballot:

“Clean Water, Wildlife, Cultural Heritage and Natural Areas”
“Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to dedicate funding to protect our drinking water sources; to protect, enhance, and restore our wetlands, prairies, forests, and fish, game, and wildlife habitat; to preserve our arts and cultural heritage; to support our parks and trails; and to protect, enhance, and restore our lakes, rivers, streams, and groundwater by increasing the sales and use tax rate beginning July 1, 2009, by three-eighths of one percent on taxable sales until the year 2034?
Yes ……. No …….”

HOW WILL MINNESOTANS BENEFIT?
Minnesotans will ensure the preservation and restoration of our environment, clean water, parks and cultural heritage.

WHERE WILL THE MONEY GO?
If approved by the voters, this slight increase in the state sales tax would raise approximately $291 million per year, beginning to be available in 2010, of which 33 percent will go to an outdoor heritage fund to restore, protect, and enhance wetlands, prairies, forests, and habitat for fish, game and wildlife; 33 percent will go to a clean water fund to protect, enhance, and restore water quality in lakes, rivers, and streams and to protect groundwater, 19.75 percent for arts, arts education, arts access and to preserve Minnesota’s history and cultural heritage and 14.25 percent to support parks and trails of regional or statewide significance.

HOW WILL THE ARTS AND CULTURE BENEFIT?
If passed by the voters, this amendment will raise approximately $58 million annually for the arts, arts education, history and cultural heritage. The amount would increase slightly over time because of inflation. Funding to the Minnesota State Arts Board and Regional Arts Councils now is about $10.2 million/year, and would increase to about $30M /year in the first year, and then increase with inflation over the next 25 years. Arts organizations and activities in the state will benefit from a doubling or tripling of arts funding to help them serve Minnesotans statewide. Currently there is no direct state funding for arts education, separate from ordinary education system funding, and some portion of the funding will be designated for arts education. Money from this new pool will also potentially fund Minnesota’s historical societies.

HOW WILL IT BENEFIT LAND AND WATER CONSDERVATION AND PARKS?
Minnesotans value our quality of life, part of which is access to our beautiful outdoors. 80% of this bill will invest in our water, our land, and our future, ensuring clean water to drink, natural places to hike and swim and protecting forests and lakes where we can hear loons, see wildlife, and hunt and fish. Just like our cultural resources, these natural resources are fundamental to our quality of life in Minnesota.

WHY A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT? WHY NOW?
Passing this amendment would be a resounding statement of how we as Minnesotans value both the arts and environment, which are important pillars of our identity as a state. Protecting the arts in Minnesota’s constitution would be a groundbreaking move on the national level.

The arts need a stable, long term and protected source of funding. While the arts are a very tiny part of the state’s budget (currently about $10 million of the state’s roughly $35 billion budget), they are slashed every time the state has a budget deficit. In fact, we lost 32% of arts funding in a state deficit in 2003. Few other items in the state budgets were cut as much as the arts.

The state’s budget will get progressively tighter as the Boomer generation retires, posing increasing demand on the state’s pension plans, health and human services and social services. In addition, there are ever increasing demands on the state’s budget for education and transportation. Smaller budget items like environmental conservation and culture will be increasingly squeezed. Unless we act now with stable, dedicated funding, these areas could be left behind.

Minnesotans frequently use our constitution to take care of issues the legislature is not addressing. In fact, Minnesota’s constitution has been amended 118 times since it was adopted. It’s been amended 33 times since 1960, just about every year and a half on average in that period. Our constitution is a detailed, living document, much different than the national constitution that rarely is amended. In fact, Minnesota’s constitution was amended just last year to dedicate funds for transportation.

The legislature will still retain oversight over how the funds are spent for the environment and culture. The constitutional amendment pays for itself by creating its own revenue, so doesn’t take away from the rest of the budget. It also creates new accounts into which the new money will go, but leaves the disposition of the funds to the legislature, as long as they are spent for these purposes.

The legislature has committed to pass the bill that will make the ballot initiative a reality. Both the House and Senate passed the bill to the conference committee by large margins in the 2007 session. The conference committee agreed to the bill and sent it back to the floors. It did not make final passage merely because they ran out of time at the end of the legislative session. Leadership in both houses have vowed to pass it first thing in the next legislative session, which starts February 2008. It’s going to happen, and we need to get ready now. It will take more than a year and a half to create and implement a campaign to pass the amendment on the ballot in November of 2008. This is our one chance to pass dedicated funding for our cultural and outdoors heritage. We may never get this chance again.

CAN IT PASS?
Polling done by conservation groups shows public support to pass the ballot initiative in November 2008. Nationally, 75% of conservation measures have passed, most of which were tax increases. There have been 31 local and regional conservation measures proposed in Minnesota since 1998 of which 83% have passed.