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Updated: May 4, 7:10 a.m. | Posted: May 3, 2:02 p.m.

Minnesota voters in 2024 may be asked to decide whether to keep directing lottery revenue to environment and natural resource projects.

And as part of a proposed constitutional amendment, voters could also choose to direct some of that money to communities that have been historically passed over for the projects.

The plan – which advanced through House and Senate committees on Wednesday – would continue directing 40 percent of funds generated from the Minnesota Lottery to the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund. It moves next to rules committees in both chambers.

The Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources sends out millions of dollars from that fund to environmental and natural resource projects around the state.

They would still be in charge of the bulk of the funding under the bill, but 1.5 percent would be reserved for projects in underserved communities. Francisco Segovia, executive director of Latino advocacy organization COPAL, said urban communities and people of color had applied for the funding but had previously been turned down.

“We believe this community grant program that is included in the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund renewal can help fill the gaps all over the state and expand connection to and work in places that have been left out,” Segovia said.

Lawmakers who backed the bill said voters for decades have supported using lottery money to fund natural resources projects. And they said they should include the additional grant dollars for groups that have so far missed out.

“It's really specific and targeted at the inclusion of Black and Indigenous and Hispanic and Asian members of Minnesota who are not only often left out of these processes, but are systematically left out,” said Sen. Erin Maye Quade, DFL-Apple Valley. “So when we create councils and commissions to specifically include those members, it's to recognize that we wrote policies and laws and had norms and all of these practices that were specifically designed to do the opposite.”

Some lawmakers took issue with directing part of the environmental funding to a separate advisory council that could advise project funding. 

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources would appoint members to the board and would green light funding recommendations without the requirement of a sign off from state lawmakers.

“So what we are doing is we are doing it again, we are doing what we have done in this Legislature for the last four months. Again, taking authority for appropriation from the legislative branch, and giving it to the executive branch, that's what this bill is doing,” Sen. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, said.

Voters in 1988 approved a constitutional amendment that dedicates the funding "for the public purpose of protection, conservation, preservation, and enhancement of the state's air, water, land, fish, wildlife, and other natural resources."

The state estimates that more than 1,700 projects have been funded through the trust fund since 1991. Without an extension, the constitutional dedication for the funding is set to run out in 2025.

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2023 Minnesota legislative session

Dana Ferguson

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Minnesota lawmakers on Wednesday advanced proposals to ask voters to continue earmarking state lottery funds for environment and natural resources projects.

Environmental trust fund extension could come before 2024 voters

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