Sportsmen (and women) groups are plentiful in District 25. Last Friday, August 10th, was the annual Waterfowl Banquet in New Prag
ue.I attended with Representatives Laura Brod whose Husband Wade is quite an avid hunter) and Representative Ray Cox and his wife, Ellen. Ray was lucky and won one of the raffles- a nice Cabela’s bag.
One topic of interest with people was the Constitutional Amendment to dedicate 3/16th of one cent of the existing sales tax for clean water and wildlife habitat. Many sportsmen organizations worked hard to gain passage of the amendment, but it failed this year mostly because Senate Democrats added Constitutional dedication of sales tax for arts spending. Many, including me, believed that this amendment to the bill was designed to “kill” the bill. It worked. Next year, Sportsmen Groups will work harder to keep the bill clean.
One article which accurately described the events at the capitol this year was written by Sportswriter Dennis Anderson of the Minneapolis Tribune. He concludes that the bill was defeated by the addition of arts funding to the bill. He’s right ! An earlier article written by Dennis Anderson is also linked here.