At Minnesota AgriGrowth’s recent annual legislative wrap-up luncheon in St. Paul, four key ag lawmakers offered their insight on how the 2017 legislative session fared.

Participating on the panel were state Rep. Rod Hamilton (R-Mountain Lake), chairman of the Agriculture Finance Committee; state Rep. Jean Poppe (DFL-Austin), ranking minority member of the House Ag Committee; state Sen. Bill Weber (R-Luverne), chairman of the Agriculture, Rural Development and Housing Committee; and state Sen. Kent Eken (DFL-Twin Valley), ranking minority member of the Agriculture, Rural Development and Housing Policy Committee.

All four deemed the session “successful” in terms of reaching consensus on a number of ag-specific issues. Yet, some expressed concerns about how this session concluded with only legislative leadership and the governor making the deals.

“This session, more than any other, led to the death of the conference committee,” Poppe said. “I feel this Legislature have to reclaim who it is and we can only do this if we all have skin in the game. When you don’t have the ability to sit at the table, instead, someone else decides for you. We have to turn that back around or we’ll have to put up with a very partisan Legislature.”

Added Eken: “Compromise is not a four-letter word. We need dialogue between the two sides.”

Each lawmaker took turns sharing his or her perspective on the session.

Weber noted the ag bill had components that everyone could support — a new tax credit program for beginning funding for noxious weed eradication and the Minnesota Ag Education Leadership Council, and maintaining Minnesota Department of Ag programs such as Livestock Investment Grants.

“Outside of ag, we produced the largest tax relief bill in 20 years and the largest transportation bill in the last 10 years,” he said.

Weber also noted the return of career vocational training placed in the education bill.

“This was abandoned by the state years ago,” he said. “I’m happy to say it’s coming back.”

Eken noted that hemp production has a bright future in Minnesota and that the legislature supports its development. He also discussed the wolf-livestock prevention grant program, noting that common ground was reached between groups, and the importance of tractor rollover grants.

Eken added he thought the transportation bill was good but could have been better.

“We need to generate a new revenue stream for that,” he said. “I have concerns about taking money out of the general fund for it.”

Poppe said the ag bills that were passed are good for Minnesota.

“In the House, when the ag finance bill went through, it was a unanimous vote,” she said. “That says a lot about committees working together.”

She appreciated support for MDA’s Farm Advocates Program and funding for community revitalization.

“Ag is about the human side of the economy,” she said. "It is important for farmers to have access to mental health programs and for rural neighbors to have access to food options."

Hamilton issued a challenge to those in attendance at the luncheon: to continue to educate the public about agriculture and to add diversity to the collective ag policy table.

“When we discuss urban ag issues, we are missing folks of color,” he said, acknowledging the lack of diversity in the room. When he held a committee meeting in St. Paul to discuss urban agriculture, he was happy at the turnout and gave kudos to state Rep. Karen Clark (DFL-Minneapolis) for helping bring in folks to give testimony.

“I never saw so much color, and that was beautiful,” he said. “We need that. We need to keep building bridges.”

A handout provided by Minnesota AgriGrowth offered additional information on actions taken during this legislative session. They included:

Water quality issues
Delays for implementing the state’s buffer law were not included in the omnibus environment and natural resources finance bill passed into law. Buffers, or alternative water quality practices, must be in place on public waters by Nov. 1 and on ditches by Nov. 1, 2018. The final bill does include a provision that provides for an eight-month delay — extending the deadline to July 1, 2018 — for landowners who file a compliance plan with their soil and water conservation districts by Nov. 1.

Additional modifications to the buffer law include:

• redefinition of public waters or the purposes of the buffer law that are subject to the Nov. 1 implementation deadline, which the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources and Department of Natural Resources are interpreting as a simple clarification of the previous law
• codification in law of BWSR alternative practices and conservation practices based on local conditions approved by the local soil and water conservation district that are consistent with the Field Office Technical Guide
• buffer strips must only seed mixes verified by the Department of Agriculture to prevent contamination with Palmer amaranth or other noxious weed seeds
• provision that a landowner or authorized agent that has filed a parcel-specific riparian protection compliance plan with the soil and water conservation district by Nov. 1 shall be granted a conditional compliance waiver until July 1, 2018
• $4.0 million riparian aid to local governments

Agriculture finance and policy
The omnibus agriculture policy and finance bill appropriates more than $105 million over the next two years to fund the Department of Agriculture ($104.454 million), Board of Animal Health ($10.876 million) and Agricultural Utilization Research Institute ($7.586 million).

Notable provisions include:

• more than $1 million for noxious weed programs (Palmer amaranth)
• $240,000 wolf-livestock prevention grants
• $500,000 pollinator habitat and research for identifying best practices and establishing habitat beneficial to pollinators
• $24.8 million for the Agricultural Growth, Research and Innovation Program
• $18.6 million for the agriculture research, education, Extension and technology transfer initiative

Important policy provisions in the bill include:

• reaffirms the ability for farmers and commercial pesticide applicators to continue to apply pesticides within the label requirements of the product
• extends the Minnesota Agricultural Fertilizer Research and Education Council until June 30, 2020
• increases the threshold for the Farmer-Lender Mediation Act from $5,000 to $15,000.

Property tax relief for farms and businesses
A $650 million tax cut package passed by the legislature and signed by Gov. Mark Dayton included property tax relief for farmers who carry a large share of the cost of school building bonds. In addition, the tax bill also removes the automatic inflator in the statewide business property tax, and the first $100,000 of a property’s market will be exempt from the state levy and the overall levy reduced.

Transportation funding
A $5.9 billion, two-year transportation funding bill was passed, which shifts $300 million in auto-related sales tax revenues to road and bridge construction funding. The bill also authorizes $940 million in borrowing over four years — allocating $640 million in bonds for general state road construction and $300 million for the Corridors of Commerce program. It is estimated that this will fund 8,800 lane-miles and 200 bridges to repaired or replaced in the next 10 years.