Since its start, the state’s Parks and Trails Legacy Fund has successfully provided funds for Minnesota’s parks and trails.
We supported creation of the fund when in 2008 Minnesotans passed the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment, increasing the state sales tax by 3/8 of 1 percent for 25 years to provide additional funds for outdoor preservation, water quality, arts and culture, and parks and trails.
But what we can’t support is the continued inequities in how the Parks and Trails Legacy Fund is divvied up across the state.
Of the nearly $40 million annual allotment to the Parks and Trails Legacy Fund, outstate Minnesota isn’t getting its fair share and that’s got to change.
The Koochiching County Board agrees, and on June 12 joined other counties in support of a resolution that calls for the percentage of legacy funds to be increased to a level more equal to those of the metro area and the Department of Natural Resources. The resolution declares that the current funding splits are “inherently unfair to greater Minnesota and not enough to carry out the state plan or meet public expectations.”
The inequity is clear when you consider that this biennium’s $78 million was divided as follows: 42 percent to metro's regional parks, 38 percent to the DNR and 20 percent to greater Minnesota. At least the recent funding formula was better for outstate Minnesota than the previous biennium, which gave 43 percent to metro parks, 43 to the DNR and 14 percent to greater Minnesota.
We urge greater Minnesota lawmakers to band together in the next session to ensure that greater Minnesota gets its fair share. And with metro legislators growing in number after redistricting, this year’s fight to not only increase our share, but perhaps just maintain the status quo, may be even more challenging.
