A narrowly-divided legislature met somewhere in the middle and resolved budget and other contested issues with compromise during a one-day special session earlier this week.
And all things considered “it was a good session for northeastern Minnesota,” State Sen. Grant Hauschild (D-Hermantown) said Tuesday.
“We were able to have some successes,” Hauschild said during an appearance on the Ely Echo’s Pulse of Ely podcast. “Not everybody got what they wanted, and we had to make some tough choices (but) I’m pretty pleased overall with how the session turned out.”
Hauschild touted moves that preserved local government aid, county program aid, payments in lieu of taxes, as well as the inflationary aid increases for Minnesota’s public schools.
“It was good in terms of funding for our local governments,” said Hauschild.
The region also saw some victories on the health care front, with additional funding heading north for both area ambulance services and nursing homes.
“It was another session where we prioritized EMS,” said Hauschild. “The Iron Range is challenged with distance and an aging population of the region and workforce, where we rely heavily on volunteers.”
About $16 million was set aside for ambulance services and operations in Ely, Babbitt and Tower will benefit, according to Hauschild.
Ambulance services will also see a new revenue stream thanks to a program that will provide some funding for uncompensated care.
“When our ambulances go to the site of an emergency but don’t transport they can’t get reimbursed,” said Hauschild. “So we created a new aid program that will provide grant funding to those entities for uncompensated care, and it could be a huge benefit to communities like Ely and elsewhere on the Iron Range.”
The legislature will also provide direct appropriations to nursing homes including Ely’s Boundary Waters Care Center.
“There were several hundred thousands of dollars in two different years coming up (for BWCC),” said Hauschild. “With other cuts that were coming we knew how critical it was that we secure some direct funding to the Boundary Waters Care Center because of the unique challenges it faces, with how far you are from other care centers.”
The current session may have also laid some groundwork for the future, particularly when it comes to designing a tax structure for helium extraction.
“We definitely want to push for a structure similar to taconite where we provide back to local communities the benefits of this resource,” said Hauschild. “Unfortunately when we got negotiations with the House, both Republicans and House Democrats felt they didn’t get the chance to properly vet that structure or helium in general, and asked for more work to be done on the House side.”
Hauschild also was unable to push across legislation that would have sent school taxes paid on cabins to the district where those properties are located. “That was one of the more difficult things and it was one of my top priorities,” said Hauschild. “Unfortunately the case was made that if we are protecting existing aids like LGA and PILT, then we can’t really afford to create a new aid on top of that.”
