Tucked into the Dayton administration 2017 budget were two items specific to buffers and wetland protection.

A water quality buffer aid payment program was proposed to help alleviate the cost of compliance with state water quality requirements. The program would provide eligible landowners $40 per acre each year for each tillable acre converted to a water quality buffer strip. Payments would be made for five years, beginning in taxes payable in 2019.

There are 53,000 landowners eligible for this payment.

The second wetland protection involves an ongoing riparian protection aid payment to counties. Dayton proposed $10 million in ongoing aid to help counties and watershed districts enforce and implement riparian protection and water quality practices. “Ongoing” here means that funding is proposed for this biennium as well as the next biennium, fiscal years 2020-21, says Ryan Brown, Minnesota Department of Revenue.

The proposed ongoing aid is similar to what was previously passed. The maximum aid to a county is $200,000, and the minimum aid is $45,000. Aid to each county is split between the county government and watershed districts, based on the percentage of the county’s area in which the county or the watershed districts have affirmed jurisdiction for enforcing and implementing the practices. For areas where neither the county nor the watershed district has affirmed its jurisdiction, the share of aid is given to the Board of Water and Soil Resources.