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State Legislator's Comments

State Legislators Comments

Written by Paul Anderson - State House Representative 13A

Monday, 30 January 2012 15:40

Monday, Jan. 30, 2012

Town hall meetings have been scheduled for Sauk Centre and Glenwood in District 13A. Senator Joe Gimse and I will host the gatherings, in Sauk Centre this Saturday and in Glenwood the following week. Both will start at 8:30. Locations are the Lynx National Golf Course in Sauk Centre Feb. 4th, and at the Glenwood Retirement Home the following Saturday, Feb. 11th.

After a short opening-day session Jan. 24th in the House of Representatives, our Education Finance Committee held its first meeting later that same afternoon. The bill we debated dealt with changing the way local levy referendum dollars are allocated when charter schools are located within the boundaries of a school district. Under current law and based on student numbers, the state-equalized portion of referendum dollars goes to charter schools in the district, while all of the locally-raised dollars stay with the school district.

It was argued by those favoring the change that since referendums are based on per-pupil funding amounts all the money raised should follow students who may be attending charter schools within the district. I raised the point that since it's the district who conducts referendum elections, and because voters have given their approval based on the assumption that all referendum dollars would be going to the district, to change the funding stream now would not be what district residents originally voted for.

It was also pointed out that back when the original charter school legislation was written those schools were allowed to "bill back" to the school district their costs for special education. In addition, school districts were to provide the transportation necessary to get students residing within the district to their charter school.

This debate illustrates the difficulty in trying to change one piece of the over-all funding mechanism. It can upset the balance negotiated years ago and cause unintended consequences. In this particular instance, after nearly two hours of lively discussion, the bill was laid over.

The date of January 27 is significant in that it's the day the wolf was taken of the "endangered list" in Minnesota. The DNR last Thursday gave our Environment Committee an update on its plan to manage the species, whose numbers are estimated to be around 3,000, mainly in the Arrowhead region and in northwestern Minnesota. Preliminary plans call for about 400 to be taken during the first season, either by hunting or by trapping.

Under the DNR plan, 6,000 licenses would be granted for either hunting or trapping. The season would begin Nov. 24th and run into the following January. Another plan being considered would allow the season to begin earlier, during the first week end of deer hunting, which would mean more hunters in the field and increase the likelihood of seeing and possibly bagging a wolf. We were told by an expert in the field, Dr. David Mech, that wolves usually run in packs of 6 to 8 animals and can move 15 or more miles a day within their territory. Their diet consists primarily of whitetail deer, usually fawns or deer past their prime. He estimated that an average adult wolf would consume the equivalent of approximately 17 to 18 adult deer in a year's time.

Dr. Mech added that bagging a wolf is no easy task. They are wary and have excellent instincts. He mentioned that in Montana, where the hunting of wolves is allowed during elk season, only 79 were taken last year.

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