State Capitol update: MCGA celebrates Women in Ag Day
By Amanda Bilek
Senior Public Policy Director, Minnesota Corn Growers Association
Last week was National Ag Week, and yesterday at the state Capitol was the first Women in Ag Day. The University of Minnesota Extension Women in Ag Network worked with Senator Mary Kunesh (DFL-New Brighton) and a small steering committee to pull the day together. Although several women leaders in agriculture had planned to attend the event at the Capitol in-person, the event was conducted virtually due to the weather.
Women are critical to agriculture in Minnesota. According to the most recent Census of Agriculture data from 2022, there are 35,635 female farmers in Minnesota, and 11,722 list farming as their primary occupation. Both are slight increases from the 2017 census. In addition to female farmers, there are also women working in the agriculture sector that hold executive or senior level positions in government, agribusiness, research, livestock, commodity, and general farm organizations.
As part of Women in Ag Day, Governor Walz issued a proclamation and the Senate Agriculture and Rural Development Committee featured the stories of women farmers from across the state during its meeting. I consider it a privilege to harness my passion for rural communities and agriculture to advocate for the interests of corn farmers in St. Paul and Washington, D.C., and enjoy helping to promote Minnesota agriculture’s sector, including women who are helping to lead in so many different ways.
Supplemental budget
As I wrote last week, Governor Walz last Monday outlined his administration’s proposal. Last Friday, House and Senate DFL leaders and the Governor announced joint supplemental budget committee targets for the remainder of the 2024 session. The budget targets increase the proposed supplemental budget target from the Governor’s $225 million proposal to $512 million and are outlined by specific spending agreements by jurisdiction. The joint supplemental budget agreement would bring the total general fund budget for the FY24-25 biennium to $71 billion and leave approximately $3.2 billion on the bottom line from the February forecasted surplus of $3.7 billion.
A couple of specific budget targets we will be watching closely to see how committee chairs in each body determine what priorities will receive funding include agriculture for $4.5 million, environment for $17 million, and taxes for $53 million.
Although the supplemental budget is important, a significant area of focus for MCGA is proposed policy changes that would impact farmers. Some of these policy proposals do carry a financial impact and given the size of general fund budget targets across different areas, some of the most concerning proposals could fall by the wayside. However, committee chairs could also look to increasing fees or creating new fees to help fund specific priority areas. It is uncertain if that will occur, but MCGA will be vigilant in scrutinizing omnibus supplemental budget bills as they start to take shape.
Last Friday was also the policy committee deadline, and we saw various committees advance omnibus policy bills. These bills do not include any provisions that have a fiscal impact. The Senate Agriculture, Senate Environment, and House Environment committees all passed out of committee omnibus policy bills. The environment bills do not contain any concerning provisions such as changes to drainage policy or public waters. However, we do expect to see concerning provisions in the House omnibus environment finance bill in the next few weeks. The agriculture policy bill is mostly technical corrections to various Minnesota Department of Agriculture programs. It does contain some changes to the grain licensing program with financial audit requirements as well as a definitional change for sustainable aviation fuel to include green hydrogen-based fuel.
Finally, there were a few individual bill hearings where testimony from MCGA was provided.
- HF 4989 (Pursell, Olson, Kraft) – proposes to establish soil health, climate smart, and clean water goals and a pilot project in southeast MN that would provide financial incentives ($15/acre) to establish cover crops, reduced tillage, and precision agriculture practices. The bill proposes to pay for the pilot program by rerouting current fertilizer fees and ending the Agriculture Fertilizer Research and Education Council. As described by the authors, who co-presented the bill to the House Agriculture Committee last week, the proposal is a work in progress. We have several concerns with the bill, and MCGA outlined our top concerns during testimony. You can watch the committee hearing here.
- HF 4135 (Hansen) – proposes to establish a nitrogen fertilizer tax and PFAS study. The bill was heard in the House Environment Committee last Tuesday. Testimony was limited to one section of the bill that deals with testing for PFAS in biosolids applied to agricultural fields. MCGA did testify on the bill to raise our concerns with the fertilizer tax provisions but focused on the PFAS section, as requested by the committee. Committee video is available here.
- HF 3624 (Hansen) – proposes to prohibit corn planting on state land and convert current corn plots on state land to native vegetation, which is estimated to cost about $3 million. There are about 12,000 acres of public land in cooperative or lease agreements with farmers, and about one-third of those acres are grown to corn. There is no Senate companion to the bill. MCGA did testify in opposition, and you can watch the discussion here.
Starting tomorrow the Legislature will take a short recess for the Easter holiday before returning next Tuesday after 12 p.m. A policy update is unlikely to happen next week, but we’ll be back keeping you updated on activities at the Legislature in the second week of April.
