Even though it was a beautiful night, the Cook County Community Center was full last Tuesday evening as people came to hear Rep. Rob Ecklund speak and answer questions posed to him. Staff photo/Brian Larsen
Rep. Rob Ecklund, District 3A DFL-International Falls, paid a visit to Cook County this past Tuesday. He first met with representatives of the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa in Grand Portage, and then met with the public at the community center. Rob took questions for more than an hour and a half Tuesday evening.
When asked about the 2019 legislative session, Ecklund expressed some frustration about the final process.
The Senate would have the gavel one day, he said, and then the House would have the gavel the next day.
“Every time the Senate had the gavel, we wouldn’t meet. Every time the House had the gavel, we would meet.”
As time wound down, Rob said the last week to ten days, three groups of legislators met and hammered out the budget. “Which took the public process out of it. Senator Bakk wasn’t happy, I wasn’t happy. Next year it won’t be this way. I agree (the process) it should be more open and honest.”
Still, the compromise budget accomplished some critical goals by increasing investments in education and protecting funding for health care.
Ecklund was chief author of the state’s Border-to-Border Broadband Grant program. The budget included $40.5 million of investments over the next two years to build reliable, high-speed Internet for schools, businesses, and homes.
“I’m particularly proud of our work to expand investments in broadband, which businesses, students, and farmers depend on,” adding those investments will help rural communities in northern Minnesota remain competitive.
The budget also included increased funding for education, with a two percent increase in the per-pupil formula each of the next two years. Also 4,000 voluntary pre-kindergarten slots were added and $90 million was granted to address the federal government’s failure to sufficiently fund special education.
For Cook County, Rob was also successful in securing $200,000 for Cook County Higher Education. Those dollars will help pay for educational programming and academic support services.
Working families also received a tax credit and an income tax cut under this year’s legislation.
As chair of the House Veterans and Military Affairs Division, Rob made sure there was full funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Military Affairs. The compromise budget also included funding for the Veterans Voices program, Counseling and Case Management, Outreach, Referral and Education program to address veteran homelessness, and the “Helmets to Hardhats” program to assist veterans who want to enter building and construction apprenticeship programs.
A big fan of trails, Rob said the 2019 Environment budget contains funding for several ATV and ORV projects he proposed, including the Voyageur ATV Trail, the Prospector Loop Trail, and the Taconite State Trail. He also sponsored the border to border trail (B2B) but when asked about some counties who have asked to opt out of the route, he wasn’t sure what was currently going on with the planning.
When asked about Polymet, Rob said the mining company had undergone 14½ years of permitting and he would trust the state’s permitting process, “Which is more rigorous than the federal permitting process,” he added.
“Are there any DFL candidates coming out to run against (U.S. Congressman) Pete Stauber?”
“No,” said Ecklund. “No one. I heard a rumor that Pete is going to run for only one more term and then run for governor. It’s just a rumor. Hey, you can say I started it,” he said to a room full of laughter.
Candidates that might be interested in running for Stauber’s congressional seat are “Keeping their powder dry,” for a run after the 2020 election, he said. They might be using this time to build their resumes and wait to see if the district gets re-districted, he said, adding, “Don’t ask me to run. I’m not at all interested.”
On the topic of women’s reproductive rights, he answered, “I have always been pro-choice. I don’t feel it’s my right to tell a woman what to do with her body.”
When asked about the mean-spiritedness that has crept into national politics, he replied, “Luckily, Washington politics hasn’t gotten to Minnesota.” He added he has built relationships with Republican legislators, and both sides need to learn to work together in a bipartisan way to accomplish the people’s work.
Still, he said for the DFL party to ultimately succeed, “We need to win back the Senate.”
When the discussion turned to the lack of low-income housing or assisted living housing in Cook County, Rob replied, “It’s a tough issue that many communities are also facing.”
Still, “Cook County has done a good job on workforce housing…But to develop needed assisted living facilities, you need CNAs and nurses available to hire. I hear about it all of the time. But I don’t know what to do about it.”
“Will you oppose any weakening or repealing of the sulfate standards for wild rice? Rob was asked.
“I think the science needs to be worked on. We need to figure out what’s going on with wild rice in general. It’s complicated,” he said.
But one gentleman pushed back. He said the governor’s task force seemed more in favor of industry and wasn’t listening to the six or seven indigenous tribes who want to work with the governor on setting sulfate standards for wild rice.
“I understand the governor is working on that,” Rob said. “I’ve asked several times, and I can’t get an answer,” about the plans for the state to work on a sulfate standard for wild rice with the tribes who are most affected.
“Will the state ever have rank choice voting?” asked Cook County Commissioner David Mills.
“Some cities have it. But I don’t think I will see rank choice voting for the state in my time as a legislator,” he answered. When Mills asked why, Rob responded, “Because I don’t think the general public understands rank choice voting.”
“What are the chances of enacting legislation for common-sense gun control and background checks for the purchase of guns?” questioned an audience member.
Rob replied, “That’s not going to happen as long as Republicans are in control of the Senate.” He also stated his email basket was filled with people who were against background checks and gun control of any kind.
One person asked if work on the Gitchi Gami bike trail could be speeded up. “It costs $1.5 million per mile to build the bike trail, and that takes a lot away from the gas tax.”
He suggested putting a user fee on bikes that cost more than $500 and using that money for trail development. However, Rob said he didn’t want a user fee placed on a parent or guardian who would be buying his/her kid a bike from Walmart or Target.
More work is needed on the Permanent School Trust fund, Ecklund said.
Currently every school district in the state gets about $37 per student (he wasn’t sure about this number), even though most (92 percent) of the 2.5 million acres of School Trust Lands and an additional 1 million acres of severed mineral rights in question are in northeastern Minnesota.
Under current legislation the Permanent School Trust fund receives money from the state because land within the BWCAW can’t be logged or mined or utility leases granted etc. Between 1857 and 1866, the federal government granted lands within Minnesota to be placed in trust to support schools. Much of the land was sold right away to put money into the Trust account to support public schools and since then some other federal lands were combined with the School Trust lands to make up the current 3.5 million acres of land that generates revenue for the Permanent School Fund.
With an ever-increasing amount of state infrastructure work needed, Ecklund predicted that next year the state would bond for over one billion dollars for the first time ever. He said the state is qualified to bond for as much as $3 billion.
Carbon Fee and Dividend (CFD) legislation—a federal revenue-neutral carbon pricing policy intended to address the threat of climate change, came up, and Rob said the legislation had no chance to get through the Senate. “But I think it’s a good idea.”
What are we doing as a state to keep our water clean? Asked one concerned lady.
Under the Governor Dayton administration buffer zones were created on farms that had streams or rivers running through them. That policy said Rob, “will do a tremendous job of cleaning up the water” from pesticides and other chemicals used by farmers that leach into the rivers unless they are protected by a buffer.
Currently, some farmers are planting alfalfa on the 32-foot wide buffers, Rob said.
Rob ended by saying, “I just want to work hard for you, I don’t want to be part of the party machine. I will work for you for a few more years if you elect me and then let someone else do the job.”
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