When the Office of the Legislative Auditor identified problems in the operations of the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board earlier this year, IRRRB Commissioner Mark Phillips, his board and his staff moved quickly to develop correctives.
Those correctives now are contained in legislation authored in the Minnesota Legislature by members of the Iron Range delegation. The Cook County Chamber of Commerce strongly supports this legislation.
As has been observed by many, the OLA audit of the IRRRB was overdue. The problems it found were real and require a response like that contained in this legislation. It would update IRRRB statutes and processes in a way that is in alignment with the OLA report and the needs of IRRRB communities.
Conversely, we are concerned with the provisions and direction of alternate legislation currently moving through the House. That body’s legislation does not address the issues raised in the OLA report. Instead, it would put in place a cumbersome, bureaucratic and political process with which it is difficult to imagine businesses and entrepreneurs engaging. Its provisions would change the tone and direction of an agency that is important to the people of Cook County. The House bill would subject the work of the IRRRB to the partisan political will of the legislative majority and not the people and needs of the Iron Range.
We in Cook County have a critical stake in how this gets resolved. Cook County is part of the Taconite Aid Area, within which the IRRRB operates. It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of the IRRRB and its funds to the health and well-being of our communities.
Scarcely an agency or institution exists in Cook County that has not benefitted from IRRRB funding. From Grand Portage State Park to Father Baraga Cross in Schroeder and all the delights of the Gunflint Trail, Grand Marais, Lutsen and Tofte, the Cook County that Minnesotans so love to visit would be a much less welcoming and enjoyable place were it not for IRRRB investments.
IRRRB funds not only provide critical funding at key moments but also help create and sustain jobs. Without a strong partnership of the IRRRB, the Cook County economy would be much the poorer.
We appreciate the work of Commissioner Phillips and his staff. They aren’t just state bureaucrats to us; they are neighbors and friends whom we know to be honorable public servants. They have been responsive to Cook County needs and have helped with projects that are critically important to securing a future for our North Shore communities.
Moreover, in our experience, the IRRRB always has been exceptionally mindful of safeguarding, accounting for and ensuring the proper use of the funds with which it is entrusted. The reforms recommended in the OLA report and included in the Range legislation simply would reinforce and make more transparent the IRRRB’s strong financial stewardship. All can agree the IRRRB needs the reforms identified in the OLA report.
All also should agree that the legislation put forward by the House majority would harm rather than reform the agency. The House bill should be rejected in favor of the responsible reform legislation offered by Iron Range DFL legislators.
To a significant degree, the economic health of our county on the North Shore depends on the Legislature making the right choice.
Jim Boyd
Executive director
Cook County Chamber of Commerce
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