Lawmakers get committee posts

By Brad Swenson

Pioneer Staff Writer

Northern Minnesota gets a tourism boost when the Legislature convenes Tuesday with all local legislators somehow involved.

All three local House members will join a newly formed Minnesota House committee set to take up tourism issues--the Tourism Division of the House Commerce and Financial Institutions Committee.

Rep.-elects Frank Moe, DFL-Bemidji, and Brita Sailer, DFL-Park Rapids, were named to the new panel, which will be chaired by four-term Rep. Larry Howes, R-Walker. All three will be sworn into office in ceremonies at noon Tuesday in the State Capitol.

Added to the tourism mix are both Sens. Rod Skoe, DFL-Clearbrook, and Carrie Ruud, R-Breezy Point, who were both named this fall to a new panel as part of legislation approved last session to restructure the state’s tourism promotion efforts.

Skoe and Ruud are members of the Explore Minnesota Tourism Council, which advises the new stand-alone state agency Explore Minnesota Tourism, formerly housed under the Department of Employment and Economic Development.

Helping small seasonal “ma and pa” resorts is also a legislative priority of the Beltrami County Board, which is asking for legislative help in restructuring taxes or valuation of resort property to keep small resorts operating. Many are now being converted to lakeshore housing developments, in part because of high land values and property taxes.

Both Moe and Sailer, as incoming freshmen, will have to bone up on issues that weren’t originally on their campaign plates.

Moe, a Bemidji State University outdoors instructor, had sought a higher education panel. Instead, he’ll have to learn about farming.

The Bemidji DFLer was named to the House Agriculture and Rural Development Committee, which considers matters affecting all agriculture-related programs, including the Department of Agriculture, the Board of Animal Health, the Horticultural Society and the Agriculture Utilization and Research Institute.

Moe and Sailer both were appointed to the House Rules and Legislative Affairs Committee, a 26-member panel that handles most internal House matters. Chaired by House Majority Leader, Erik Paulsen, R-Eden Prairie, the panel oversees administrative operations of the House and it coordinates legislative activity on the House floor.

Included among the committee’s operational functions are establishing a budget for the House, as well as budgets for each committee; adopting policies and resolutions pertaining to House operations; reviewing and approving personnel policies; and developing permanent rules for the House, as well as joint rules for the House and Senate.

And, as members of the Tourism Division, both Moe and Sailer are members of the full Commerce and Financial Institutions Committee, which combines the work of several previous committees. It includes issues affecting Minnesota consumers, such as licensing individuals and firms in professions; reviews measures pertaining to banks, savings and loans, and credit unions; considers policy issues related to tourism; examines consumer rights in insurance and all aspects of the insurance industry; and reviews matters related to labor management and liquor.

Sailer, who campaigned on fairness in K-12 school funding, will get chance to make policy. She was appointed to the new House Education Policy and Reform Committee, a 29-member panel which will consider a host of school financing reform provisions this session.

Also on the new panel is her seatmate, House 2A Rep. Kent Eken, DFL-Twin Valley. Bemidji, with $30 million at stake in a public works bill, including $18 million for a BSU hockey arena,may find an ally in Howes.

The Walker Republican was named to the House Capital Investment Committee, which oversees bonding. Previously, state Rep. Doug Fuller, R-Bemidji, whom Moe beat Nov. 2, was that panel’s vice chairman.

Also on the Capital Investment Committee is Rep. Loren Solberg, DFL-Grand Rapids, a BSU graduate who has supported campus bonding projects.

Howes, in addition to chairing the Tourism Division and also being a member of the full Commerce and Financial Institutions Committee, was also named to the House Taxes Committee. That panel will be asked to consider several local option sales taxes proposals, including Bemidji and Park Rapids.

Senators, who were not up for election this past fall, will see only minor changes.

Ruud remains as a member of the Senate Crime Prevention and Public Safety Committee, the Finance Committee’s Higher Education Budget Division, and the Jobs, Energy and Family Development Committee.

But the first-term Republican now adds the Senate Capital Investment Committee, which will consider that chamber’s public works bill.

Skoe remains as vice chairman of the Senate Education Committee and as a member of both the Higher Education Budget Division and the Senate Taxes Committee. But he will add the vice chairmanship of the Senate Agriculture, Veterans and Gaming Committee to his committee membership.

That panel is expected to consider a number of gaming proposals, including a state partnership in a casino with the Red Lake, Leech Lake and White Earth bands of Chippewa.

Both Ruud and Skoe will be on the key panel which will set higher education spending policies affecting BSU and Northwest Technical College.