Minnesota’s precinct caucuses are Tuesday! If you have never attended a caucus before, you should know that precinct caucuses provide an opportunity to get involved with the party of your choice, get to know your neighbors, and talk about issues that are important to you and your community.

All caucuses are at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 7. Find your precinct caucus on the Secretary of State’s website.

Precinct Caucuses Launch the Election Season
Major parties are required by law to hold precinct caucuses on “caucus night,” as set by the Secretary of State. Each party determines its own procedures.

Everyone who lives within a voting precinct and is a qualified voter (or will be by the next election) can participate in one party’s precinct caucus in any one year. (Precinct = local voting district) (more…)

Minnesota Environmental Partnership’s
16th Annual Legislative and Policy Reception & Forum

Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2012
6 p.m. reception, 7 p.m. program
Summit Brewery: 910 Montreal Circle,  Saint Paul, Minnesota 55102

Register online

Join us on Wednesday, Feb. 8, to network with state policy makers and volunteers and staff of MEP’s member organizations, discuss our legislative priorities, and hear from our state legislative and agency leaders about their views on current environmental issues. (more…)

From Patience Caso, MEP campaign director, and Eric Bergstrom, legislative and campaign outreach

Welcome to the 2012 legislative session! You care about Minnesota’s Great Outdoors and you believe in making and safeguarding investments for future generations. Your voice is critical to protecting and defending our environmental policy foundation — your elected officials need to hear from you.

This year, we’re counting on you to join the members of the Minnesota Environmental Partnership and advocate for: (more…)

Imagine a squad of cheerleaders shouting out “Give me a T”, and the spectators calling back en masse, “T!!!” And then give them an “M”…and a “D”…and finally a “L”.

The spectators look confused. School spirit is suddenly stunningly low. (more…)

Back in 2008, 1.6 million Minnesotans voted to pass the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment. When polled after the 2008 vote, the majority of voters said that cleaning up and protecting Minnesota’s lakes, rivers and streams was the No. 1 reason they voted YES to pass the amendment. The next highest reason was to support ALL the components of the Amendment – water, outdoor habitat, parks and trails, and arts and culture. (Learn more about the Amendment here.)

Overall, the Legacy Amendment was established to ensure there would be long-term funding for these causes, and that the Legacy funds would not replace traditional (though recently fading) government funding for the arts and the outdoors.

Now, some Republican legislators want to divert Legacy money, specifically the arts and cultural heritage money, to help fund a new Vikings Stadium. There are nonprofits and community organizations across the state that rely on Legacy funding. The notion that Legacy money would be taken from these organizations and given to the for-profit business owners of the Vikings is shameful – and is definitely not what voters had in mind when they passed the Legacy Amendment. (more…)

Steve Morse joined radio host Nancy Nelson Tuesday, Nov. 1, on AM950 to discuss the idea (supported by some Republican leaders) that it’s OK to use Legacy Amendment funds to pay for a new Vikings stadium.

In part one, Steve and Nancy delve into the background of the proposal:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

(more…)

[Check out this previous post to hear Steve discuss these issues on AM950 Radio.]

Minnesotans expect our leaders to do more to clean up and restore our lakes, rivers and streams – Minnesota voters passed the Legacy Amendment in 2008 to do just that! But is that money being used effectively?

Our state has a long way to go in cleaning up our water, and preventing future pollution.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency reports that about 40% of Minnesota’s lakes and streams that they’ve tested are categorized as polluted. That means these waters don’t meet basic health standards for swimming or fishing – and definitely not drinking. What’s even more disturbing is that most of our lakes and rivers have yet to be tested! There is clearly more work that needs to be done to test these lakes to figure out where important clean-up work is most needed. (more…)

Steve Morse joined radio host Nancy Nelson Tuesday, Oct. 4, on AM950 to discuss Legacy Amendment funds for cleaning up our water, and how water pollution is tied to agriculture.

Listen to their conversation by clicking play below.

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(more…)

So what happened this past legislative session? Here’s our brief overview:

State Budget

Defending traditional sources of funding for our Great Outdoors was a significant part of MEP’s work at the Capitol this year. (more…)

The new compromise environment budget bill is an improvement over the budget-gutting bill originally put forth by the legislature and later vetoed by the governor, but even in this improved bill, our concerns remain:

Disproportionate cuts:

Although we are grateful that overall state general fund spending has increased for our Great Outdoors compared to the legislature’s proposals, funding to protect our lakes, rivers, streams, habitat and parks is still severely cut. (more…)