A letter from Congressman Raul Grijalva (D-Arizona) to Cook County Commissioner Sue Hakes galvanized the county board into action at their August 28, 2012 meeting. Grijalva challenged ongoing federal payments to Cook, Lake, and St. Louis counties for Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) land that does not generate property tax and asked for information on use of that funding.
Congressman Grijalva serves on the House Committee on Natural Resources’ Subcommittee on National Parks, Public Lands, and Forests. He took issue with the fact that 64 years after the Thye-Blatnik Act was approved, the three counties still receive annual payments in addition to other funding related to BWCAW land.
According to a Minnesota House of Representatives chronology of historical actions regarding the land in the BWCAW, the U.S. Congress passed the Thye-Blatnik Act in 1948, which authorized the government to purchase resorts and private property in the Boundary Waters and provided for payment in lieu of taxes (PILT) annually to Cook, Lake, and St. Louis counties. Cook County’s payment was $2,025,000 this year. The BWCAW land is appraised every 10 years and adjustments in payments are made accordingly.
The House Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands has been investigating a bill introduced by Congressman Chip Cravaack, H.R. 5544, the Minnesota Education Investment and Employment Act. This legislation would require the U.S. Forest Service to give the state of Minnesota some of the land the Forest Service holds outside the BWCAW in exchange for the state’s school trust land inside the BWCAW.
An act of the U.S. Congress in 1857 granted Minnesota the equivalent of Sections 16 and 26 of every township— Minnesota school trust land—to support education. The state has either sold those lands or used profits from industry such as logging and mining on those lands to help pay for education. The state has not been able to generate income for its school trust land inside the BWCAW, however, because of restrictions on use of that land.
Congressman Grijalva said the proposed Minnesota Education Investment and Employment Act is “so far reaching” that he asked his committee’s staff to look into it more closely. “It does not identify the federal lands to be exchanged, federal appraisal standards are not applied, and the transparency and public input provided through the National Environmental Policy Act is waived,” he said in his letter.
Upon researching the proposed legislation, Grijalva said, his staff stumbled upon the Thye-Blatnik Act. Based on information he received, he said, this funding—$6,000,000 in 2011 alone— has amounted to almost $60,000,000 since 1977.
Cravaack’s proposed legislation would add to the federal government’s land inside the BWCAW, increasing payments to the three counties by more than $1,000,000 annually, Grijalva said. He offered what he called “a reasonable amendment” to the legislation that would prevent the counties from getting any additional funding “without addressing the current Thye-Blatnik permanent earmark.” His amendment was rejected.
“As you know,” he wrote, “the federal government is faced with severe budget constraints in all programs. The counties that I and my colleagues represent are cutting back in basic services as a result of federal spending reductions. The basic question is why should three counties get special treatment?” He said Congress has adopted strict rules against the use of earmarks and “targeted use of federal funds” like this.
Congressman Grijalva asked the county to tell him how much it received this year in Thye-Blatnik funds, what the county does with the funds, whether the Forest Service restricts their use in any way, whether the funding has ever decreased, when the last appraisal was, and how it impacted Cook County. He requested an answer by September 10, saying he expected the full House of Representatives to consider H.R. 5544 sometime after Labor Day.
The revenue received from the federal government under this provision has funded a lot of jobs in Cook County through the years, Commissioner Fritz Sobanja said, in the form of things like police protection.
Commissioner Hakes suggested that they contact St. Louis and Lake county commissioners and see about writing “a very strong letter” to Grijalva from all three counties together, with copies sent to Congressman Cravaack and U.S. senators Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar as well. “I look at it as an opportunity to get the word out there,” she said, adding that she believes the writer needs to be “enlightened.”
The board authorized commissioners Fritz Sobanja and Bruce Martinson to work with County Auditor-Treasurer Braidy Powers on coordinating a response with the chairs of the St. Louis County and Lake County boards.
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