At its board meeting Nov. 15, the Cook County Chamber board adopted a legislative agenda for the 2018 session of the Legislature in St. Paul. Top priorities will be bonding for a Grand Marais harbor access project and the Gitchi Gami State Trail, along with efforts to build a strong case for increased state funding of Cook County Higher Education. The Chamber’s St. Paul representative, Judy Erickson of Conservation Strategies, Inc., was on hand to guide the discussions.
Lobbying for Cook County interests is the Chamber’s largest programmatic effort. Over the first four years of the Chamber’s existence (2014 through 2017), the Chamber invested more than $125,000 in its lobbying effort and played a major role in securing $7 million in state funding for priority projects.
The outlook for 2018 is challenging. The same day the Chamber board met, the Minnesota Supreme Court decided in Gov. Mark Dayton’s favor in a bitter funding dispute with the Republicancontrolled Legislature. Far from clearing the air, the court decision caused both sides to dig in. A successful 2018 session depends on whether legislative leaders and the governor can move past this bitter dispute.
Still, Erickson said, legislators will want to show some success because 2018 is an election year. That could bode well for passing a sizable bonding bill.
“We can’t control the environment in St. Paul,” said Chamber Executive Director Jim Boyd, “but we can control how much effort we put into securing bonding for our projects. After three years of work, this seems the year when the Grand Marais harbor access project moves to the top of the bonding list. So we will put every ounce of effort we can into securing the $2 million-plus that is needed to get this important project done.”
Although the harbor access is a DNR project, Boyd said the politics of the bonding process require that the Chamber and the city provide the advocacy needed to ensure it gets into the final bonding bill.
The project involves replacing the boat ramp on the southwest corner of the harbor with a much-improved access for boats, access to the port for pedestrians and a new parking area. When the project is complete, that will release the parking area on Artist Point for potential new uses. Coupled with the U.S. Coast Guard’s desire to vacate the house on Artist Point, this could open the door to exciting new projects for the city, Boyd said.
Bonding for the Gitchi Gami State Trail doesn’t require such heavy lifting from Cook County, Erickson said. “It’s a project everyone loves, a destination trail,” she said, “and its funding will get broad support.”
Proposed for the 2018 bonding bill are $1.5 million to complete a segment between Ski Hill Road and downtown Lutsen; $500,000 for a bridge over Silver Creek; $400,000 for engineering a seven mile section between Silver Bay and Tettegouche State Park; plus $600,000 to design and engineer a four-mile segment between Cascade River State Park and Cutface Creek Wayside west of Grand Marais.
In 2017, the Cook County Chamber and Cook County Higher Ed began a push to secure a $360,000 annual increase in Higher Ed’s state appropriation, taking it from $140,000 to $500,000. The additional funding is needed to keep up with demand for workforce development training, said Higher Ed Executive Director Karen Blackburn.
Despite multiple committee appearances and creating a very favorable impression with legislators of both parties, in the end the Higher Ed request got swamped by the general politics of the session and the demands for a large tax cut, Boyd said. Higher Ed ended up getting a $60,000 permanent bump to its appropriation, plus a one-time $40,000 appropriation of DEED workforce development funds.
In 2018, Boyd said, “We will work to keep the momentum of 2017 alive and move toward securing a larger appropriation in 2019, when the state will adopt a new biennial budget. Karen Blackburn, who has taken over for Paula Sundet Wolf, needs to introduce herself to legislators and begin to build relationships with the members of the committees that set policy and funding for higher education. So we have a lot of work to do with an eye toward 2019. And if there is a supplemental budget bill in 2018, so much the better; we will work to get an increase for Higher Ed included.”
In addition to those priorities, Boyd and Erickson said, they will keep a watchful eye out for opportunities to secure additional state funding for additional EDA workforce housing projects.
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