Ag committee prepares for session
By Janet Kubat Willette
Agri News
Date Modified: 01/29/2010 4:04 PM
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ST. PAUL — The House ag finance committee met last week to begin looking for ways to address the hole in the state budget.
The state is $1.2 billion in the hole in the current budget, said Rep. Al Juhnke, DFL-Willmar, chairman of the House Agriculture, Rural Economies and Veterans Affairs Finance Division.
Committee leaders have been instructed to start digging, looking and scratching to determine how to address the shortfall.
Committee members heard from the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Agriculture and the Minnesota Board of Animal Health.
Michael Pugliese, deputy commissioner of the Department of Veterans Affairs, said a cut in their funding will hurt the neediest of the veteran's community. In fact, they could use more money to address the needs of veterans.
State veterinarian Bill Hartmann, executive director of the Minnesota Board of Animal Health, said bovine TB control efforts are a major part of its budget. Bovine TB has not been eradicated from the state, but efforts are well on the way, Hartmann said. It has been more than a year since any infected cattle have been found, though an infected deer was found this fall.
The majority of funding directed to the board goes to paying people, Hartmann said, and it's difficult to take money from mandatory programs.
Agriculture commissioner Gene Hugoson said he figured he'd be testifying in front of the committee several times in the coming months.
Juhnke agreed and asked Hugoson to provide more details to go with the financial data he presented at the Jan. 13 meeting.
The agriculture department has begun holding back 6 percent of the funds on passthrough grants, including ethanol producer payments and the livestock investment grant.
Hugoson said if they sent out what was allocated by the Legislature now, it would give them less to work with later. The funds will remain in the designated areas until a decision is reached, he said. It's difficult to ask for money back, he said.
The department has been told to prepare for a 3 percent cut and the department is in the process of determining where to make those cuts. Hugoson said he won't jeopardize food safety and other divisions have already taken heavy hits. Instead, Hugoson said they may have to eliminate programs that aren't central to the department's core mission. That list is expected to be in front of legislators by the first week of session.
Juhnke said this year's budget problem is a blip in the screen compared to what is coming in 2011. Any reform ideas this year will lay groundwork for next year, he said.