Says Amendment will be on State Ballot in 2024, and Give Minnesotans a Say in Continued Funding of Environmental Trust Fund
SAINT PAUL, Minn. – Senate Majority Leader Kari Dziedzic (DFL-Minneapolis) said the Senate has passed a proposed constitutional amendment to be put on the 2024 state ballot to rededicate a percentage of state lottery proceeds to the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund (ENRTF) and increase the amount available to be spent each year.
Majority Leader Dziedzic said if the measure – authored by Senator Foung Hawj (DFL-St. Paul) – is approved, it will designate additional lottery proceed funding for smaller non-profits, groups, and communities across Minnesota that have been left behind.
“For more than three decades, the ENTRF has used 40 percent of state lottery proceeds to provide a stable source of funding for Minnesota’s air, water, land, fish, wildlife, and natural resources,” said Majority Leader Dziedzic. “That will end in 2025 unless we reauthorize this constitutionally dedicated source of funding for the trust fund. This bill will ask voters next year to approve an amendment to our constitution to reauthorize that practice until 2050. It’s critically important that we get this amendment on the ballot, so that Minnesota’s environment and natural resources can be enjoyed by future generations.”
“Throughout our state’s history, Minnesotans have valued our natural resources and environment as important to our state’s way of life. That’s why I authored this important constitutional amendment,” said Senator Hawj, Chair of the Senate Environment, Climate and Legacy Committee. “Since 1988, the ENTRF has played a central role in funding the conservation of these important resources, and we need to allow Minnesotans to once again have a say in funding them for current and future generations.”
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