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A legislative working group abruptly stopped working Thursday when it became clear it was no closer to an agreement with the governor on a special session to help Mille Lacs Lake resort owners.

The co-chair of the panel, Rep. Tom Hackbarth, R-Cedar, said DFL Gov. Mark Dayton and his commissioners failed to provide a specific plan for assisting businesses hurt by the lake’s declining walleye population.

Hackbarth said a fix will have to wait until the 2016 regular session.

“The governor shot his mouth off prematurely, and he knows that. He didn’t have a plan in place," Hackbarth said. "What are we going to do? I mean it’s his administration that has to come up with a plan, and we haven’t seen it. Instead of offering these people something that could have gotten done for some real help, they’re dragging their feet, and I think they finally realize they don’t have votes in the Legislature to get it done.”

Dayton wants zero-interest loans, property tax breaks and expanded tourism promotion for the area.

His commissioners provided more details during the meeting but also asked lawmakers for advice.

After Hackbarth ended the meeting Dayton issued this statement:

In calculating the potential recipients of state assistance, the Department of Employment and Economic Development looked at a 15-mile radius from the center of Mille Lacs Lake. DEED Commissioner Katie Clark Sieben said there are 161 businesses within that circle.

"These are the businesses that when I visited a few weeks ago were saying 'we don't know how we're going to pay our utility bills," Sieben said. "We don't know how we're going to pay salaries for our employees as a result of this situation, and we needed assistance.'"

Still, lawmakers from both parties have shown little or no appetite for a special session.

DFL Senator David Tomassoni of Chisholm, the working group's other co-chair, raised concerns about focusing on only one part of the state for economic assistance.

"There are 1,500 miners laid off in my area. Should we put a 15 mile radius around Eveleth and figure out what businesses are affected, or should we go up to Ely and see how many businesses have closed in Ely as a result of the lack of tourism there in recent years?" Tomassoni asked. "It comes to the point where — when do we do this specifically for one group and not for other groups? So, I think that's some of the things that have a lot legislators confused right now."

Tomassoni and other lawmakers are willing to wait until the start of 2016 regular session in March to try to help Mille Lacs.

But Republican Representative Dale Lueck of Aitkin is not. Lueck's district includes Mille Lacs. He said economic relief is needed there soon.

"If you’re going to wait until we break the lake totally and then come back, you won't have a lot of people left to help, because they'll be gone," Lueck said.

Politics and Government News

Capitol View®

Tim Pugmire

Author

The Republican co-chair of the group working on ways to help businesses around Lake Mille Lacs says Gov. Dayton doesn't have a clear plan and should not have announced his desire for a special session.

Mille Lacs ‘working group’ quits working

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