County. Um, item two is the approval of the May 27th, 2025 meeting minutes. I will move to approve those minutes. Second. We have a motion by Commissioner Meer, second by Commissioner Olson to approve the meeting minutes from May 27th, 2025.
Any discussion? Not. All those in favor say I. Nay. Okay, they are approved. Uh, chairperson's report. Uh we did have a a shaq the state community health service advisory committee meeting uh l two weeks ago. Um the commissioner of health
was there. I'd have to say she was kind of rattled um with budget cuts and cost shifts and reorganizing not firing. Yeah. Reorganizing staff staff leaving. Uh I think a number of their staff were under
you know like contract and I think they they skipped their contract. So to say the least, I think she was a little um unprepared. Um and then one of the big items that was discussed was trying to change um
some of the funding. Uh you know, we've always gone by populationbased formulas and different things. And they're looking at um a big chunk of money to change some of the the um funding apparatuses for all counties. And that's something to be worked through. Um I did
have to leave just a little early because I had a um MCIT meeting. Um were you did you Zoom? I did it on Yeah. What was your take on Yeah. I thought probably the most the thing that stood out to me the most I mean you know they had that exercise
with the foldup doll thing. That was dumb. Yeah. Yeah. That was dumb. But um probably the commissioner's talk was probably the most significant thing that took place. Yeah. I thought you've recaped it pretty well. Yeah. And it was disappointing actually the person who's
the legislative person was on vacation or something. She wasn't there. So I mean I think she Yeah, she should have been there but anyway. All right. And uh luckily we haven't had any major outbreaks. I mean some communities uh across country the measles is still a a
concern. Um but we're predominantly healthy in Minnesota. So moving on then um unless anybody else has any thoughts, questions, concerns. Nope. Okay. Item four, consent business. Approve contract with Haya Hayawa Valley Mental Health
Center to support post incarceration care coordination services for substance abuse disorders. All right. Hi. Good evening. Hi. My name is Gwen Herbert. I'm the executive director of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council and uh the program
manager for the RAP Plus program. Um and I am representing Emily Bulman U because she's u at a conference. So um I wanted to give a brief overview of uh RAP plus because I think it'll help situate all of this. So as many of you know uh the
RAP plus program was uh federally grant funded up through September 30th uh 2024. Um, and there was some gap funding that provided uh the ability for some hours for myself and then the recovery support services for Q4 of last year and then um
in 2025 for those same items. What we lost as a part of the federal grant um was the ability for the mental health practitioners um essentially the case managers at Haywatha Valley who are our partners to start working with people uh immediately upon release from custody or
as soon as they were um had applied to the program. Um instead they needed to have uh completed the comprehensive eval um through Haywata Valley. um it needed to be signed off on and then they needed to be assigned to u one of those case
managers. That process was taking 6 to 8 weeks. Um and as many of you know that period right after release is sensitive and important. Um and so we were losing some folks that we know we probably could have helped if we could have done so more immediately. um the services
that the mental health practitioners provide after the comprehensive UL has been signed off on um are then billable to ARMS um through medical assistance. So we were only able to help people who are on medical assistance and then uh who had the recommendation through their
comprehensive eval. Um so then their funding through the cannabis substance abuse uh prevention grant um came available and we were talking with Emily Vulman about it. um and um that is what this is for. So that
would help reinstate um the ability for those case managers to uh work with those people before the comprehensive eval had been completed. Um or and and this is a rare occasion for someone who was not on medical assistance. Um so Hayawatha Valley has provided us the
contract that um you'll see and will be a part of the consent agenda later um as a flat rate per month um for the rest of the year to provide those services um to be paid for through that um TEP funding um of the 28,000 and then with some
remaining funds from the rep plus budget that are currently um already appropriated. So, um, questions. A flat fee. I I I guess I didn't understand that that it was a flat fee and they'll handle how many other people
need to be helped, but was that full funding for the just the rest of 2025 because it was like 28,000 and 12,000 or something like that. Yep. So, that flat uh fee is the 5,800 amount that's on the very last page of
the contract. So 528550 a month. Um and yeah, I can maybe Eric can speak to the flat fee um decision, but um yes, he provided a fee for the rest of the remaining months of 2025 and then the
fee would it would be in 2026, although this contract is only for 2026, 2025, excuse me, and we do not currently have funding, but you'll see uh later also on the line agenda um that I'm applying for the Minnesota offices of justice programs community crime and
intervention and prevention grant um that would sustain uh or if awarded give money to to fund that in an ongoing way. So uh Eric Severs with Hayawata Valley Mental Health Center. Um the flat fee
what we did is we looked at history. So, um, we made a decision with, uh, Karen and Kaen that to help sustain the program and our staff in it to shift them from community health workers to ARMS. So, they're Medicaid reimburse.
So, a lot of the folks we work with are on Medicaid. But even with doing that, there was a gap in funding because they're doing things that the role doesn't really that Medicaid doesn't pay for such as preval and some of more of the care coordination case management
functions. And so the funding helps these unique two individuals. It's two positions and it's just the part that MA doesn't cover which historically it's been it's been that monthly amount. Weren't there rumors Medicaid was going
to get cut from the Fed? Those are still Yeah. still happening. Yeah. Yeah. So, it could put it in jeopardy. But you're you're counting on Medicare funding to help cover the gap with this. Yeah. And Yeah. The Medicaid there's a
lot to figure out. Yeah. with that. But um um but this will help with those service those pieces of the role that Medicaid does not cover because it Yeah. So I've always been curious about, you know, what's and I get the names. What's the
Minnesota health insurance policy? Mure. Mure. Does Mure cover any of this stuff? I mean, is there a private insurer that covers things like this? No. No. Okay.
So shouldn't we be lobbying mure or some to cover this versus county well this is grants and everything but and not not bring it back to a county tax uh subsidy. Yeah, a comparative. So
for 15-ish years, we've had a school-based mental health program where we have providers in the schools and periodically over those 15 years, we've we've reached out to private health insurancees because they're providing a service beyond what kids and families
get and and it hasn't been successful. That doesn't mean this wouldn't be, but we're to be honest, we're trying to just hold on to Medicaid 14 right now. So to so to secure that and a lot of efforts with that and if we secure that then it
would be asking others to fund it but um this has been a Medicaid benefit 12 10 15 years we have to watch medic yeah medicaid everything that I've understood and read the idea is to cut Medicaid they just want to cut the fraud and waste out of
it is what they're really looking to do. Yeah. And and people with mental health or sub people who are eligible today for Medicaid with with mental health conditions, what they're looking at is um increasing what they need to do to deter
to show that they are eligible because of their disability. Y our concern is some of the folks are very disabled and will need a lot of help and support to prove that they are still eligible. So that Yeah. Yeah. That's going to be time
consum time time consuming to to have that eligibility question. There's one more piece to this too. Um you know assuming that Medicaid stays in some sort of semblance of its current form. Uh one of the biggest issues particularly because the rest plus programs majority of their clients are
coming from incarceration is that um insurance all insurance private or uh public is paused while incarcerated and then the responsibility of providing health care while in the jail becomes the in our case the counties and right there that seems criminal. If you had
insurance before you committed the crime you should be able to maintain your insurance after you committed the crime. So there is a larger group of thinking around that and uh Medicaid actually issued 11:15 waiver uh to allow that and Minnesota is of right now piloting um
the idea that uh we can um for anybody who is 90 days prior to release uh would start u being eligible to have uh coverage again so that we can start that care coordination. So that would cover the majority of our clients who are not incarcerated for longer than that
3-month period. Um, yeah, they're they're actively uh taking applications for pilot sites right now and so this could be something in the next couple of years that would be helpful change. Okay. Um, Commissioner I will um move to
approve this contract. Second. Okay. We have a motion by Commissioner Meyer, second by Commissioner Olsen to approve the contract with Hayawa Hayawa Valley Mental Health Center to support post incarceration care coordination services
for substance abuse disorders. Any further discussion? Uh, one last substance abuse. Is there a list of what's classified as substance abuse? Yeah, I'm sure there is. We're talking about marijuana in a few minutes. No cannabis.
the grant. No, yeah, for for the grant, um there just needed to be general care coordination that that that language was specific in terms of um how it was awarded that because this was money that uh Emily Bulman did not even need to apply for, right, but needed to submit a
plan to spend. Um and we yeah, we wanted to be clear this could this would be used for people beyond um those just with a marijuana substance abuse diagnosis. Um and it was so. Okay. So there is a list of substance there is a
list what is classified as substance abuse. Um tell me I drink too much coffee. I don't consider that a substance abuse but but uh so I guess it's two different questions. I'm sure there is that list. Okay. But as it relates to helping people with this funding that does not uh have to tag
them with some if you I mean I don't think we would just jail you for drinking coffee in public, right? So you're probably safe there. But if it drove you to some behavior that was illegal, it could happen. Could be. Well, again, the term substance abuse is
can be vague. I'll leave it at that. Yeah. Okay. All right. All right. So, all those in favor say I. I. Nay. Okay. Pass. Thank you very. All right. Uh, general business. Anything else to come before the
community health board? If not, I would entertain. I I I just looked at your at our minutes that we just approved and Oops. from the last meeting. What page are you on? Oh, just on the 11. Yeah, probably 11. Yeah, page
11. Yep. So, didn't I just read where the Texas governor vetoed the shutting down the cannabis? You know, I haven't followed that. I don't know. He did. He He Now he's fighting with the lieutenant governor. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. I I haven't kept track of it. Okay. Yeah.
and we're gonna talk about I I guess I understood that it was okay. So, medical marijuana is legal. They're trying to outlaw uh the low potency products that are made from hemp. That's what they're trying to outlaw.
And that's a national. So, I think that the I think the confusion is that it breaks the fence. Yep. Okay. Did we any other business to come before the county board? Do I need to be here for the board eviction? Was I do
we? We had a motion. Commissioner Meyer and Yeah, we passed it. We passed the contract. No to second. Okay. We have a motion by Commissioner Vegley, second by Commissioner Olsson to adjurnn. Any of those further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Pose. Nay. Okay. We're
journ. All right. Now we have Commissioner Vegley. Did you have a Well, I had a technology issue, but I think I need to be here for board of appeal and we right. All right. Page 12. Good evening. Let's see. We have Hold on
one second. Page 12. All right. We have uh board of No, we don't have an agenda, do we? No, it's just on the on the main agenda. Okay, so we have uh meeting meeting minutes that need to be
approved. Calls to order. Okay, I call to order the Yes, I thought I did. Um the call to order the Winona County Board of Appeal and Equalization. And we have meeting minutes that need to be approved. I move to approve those
meeting minutes of the board of agenda. Any equalization? Okay. We have a motion made by uh auditor treasure and seconded by commissioner vaguely. All those in favor say I. I. Oppos? Nay. Okay. Approved. Um I apologize. I'm struggling
with Was there was there an agenda? No. Then you just adjourn. Just on the front page here. Yeah. Okay. That was to adjurnn. Second. We have a motion to adjourn made by Commissioner Meyer, second by Commissioner Eling. Um just we got a couple minutes although we did have a
report from the might as well use the time. He wants to go downstairs so he can go. We did have a couple what did we have three um that the the staff recommended and uh Commissioner Elling wasn't able to attend. I think they were all in St. Charles St. Charles before
that approval. Yeah. Oh yeah. Pardon me. Page 12 where it lists our actual minutes that we just approved. um does list those three parcels that would change. Yeah, that we went with staff recommendations. Yep. So, I guess you know the the thing I always tell people is if you're questioning
something, question it. Um you know, because sometimes sometimes the county has records wrong or um you know, we have things, you know, we can be reasonable, are human. Yes. And such. So, if there is a question on your, you know, your statement what value is and everything, it it's your due diligence
to question it if you want to. And uh I think us approving those three by staff recommendations was um appropriate saying that we do look at them and we take that very seriously and everything. So all right. So uh motion to adjurnn. Commissioner I made it. I made it and
commissioner. All those in favor say I. Post nay. Okay. We're all right. Thank you. Thank you Chelsea. But yeah I think they were Josh. Couple more in St. Charles. One was a low and one was a high. And I blamed Troy for
making me sick. Making you a second. Yeah. After the bus tour, I went home and threw up. Oh. And then I Good evening. We'll start our meeting um with the public comment. Uh, as we always start every meeting, anybody in the audience
or online can address the Winona County Board, um, we just ask that you give us your name and address and, uh, we ask you to adhere closely as you can to a two-minut time frame. Is there anybody in the audience that would like to address us?
Seeing nobody any step forward. And online, is there anybody online that would like to address the Winona County Board? Is there anyone that would like to address the Winona County Board? And third and final time, is there anyone online that would like to address
the Winona County Board? I'm seeing no activity, we'll move on. Um item three, approval of the county board meeting minutes from June 10th, 2025. So move. I'll second that. We have a motion by Commissioner Eline, second
by Commissioner Vley to approve the meeting minutes. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Oppos? Nay. Okay. Meeting minutes approved. Item number four is the acknowledgement receipt of approved land records from
December 4th, 2024. So move. I'll second. We have a motion by Commissioner Eling, seconded by Commissioner Vagley to approve the meeting minutes from December December 4th, 2024. Any discussion? All those in
favor say I. Oppos? Nay. Okay, approved. Um, consent, comments, and approval of the agenda. Uh, Commissioner Begley, couple comments at the end, please. Comments at the end. All right. Commissioner Eling, comment, discussion topic. And I'd like to just pull 69.
Okay. 6.9. We will make that 7.0. That's all right. Right. Uh, Commissioner Olson. Nothing for me. Uh, Commissioner Meyer, nothing. Okay. Uh, Administrator Holty. Nothing, Madam Chair. Okay. Um, I would like to
just make a comment on 6.3 when that is read and let's see the 6.9 was pulled. Um, and then uh just a um 6.2 uh if we could make that uh 7.1.
So we clarify that at the end so that the folks from Micah can go. Oh, it'll be very quick. Okay. 6.2. Yeah, I want 6.2. We can just make that 7.1. It'll be very quick. Yeah, mine too. Just I didn't have time to reach out for a
question. Okay. So, with that, we would have an amended agenda. I move to approve the agenda as it was amended. Okay. We have a motion by Commissioner Meyer, seconded by Commissioner Eline to approve the amended agenda. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I.
Oppose. Nay. Okay. The agenda is approved. Uh, Administrator Holty, would you read those into the record, please? I'm gonna do my best to replace her on this. Oh, okay. All right. Your voice dropped a little there, Miss Holty.
Let's see if I can get through it. Um, committee recommendations. 6.1 Approve conditional use permit for Thomas and Linda Kristofferson. Um, 6.2 2 with pole 6.3
approve resolution to reappoint the veteran service veteran services officer and and just my comment is that uh Tom is in the audience. I thank you very much. Uh it's very nice that I don't get any calls about your office. It
obviously means that you're doing a great job in keeping our veterans taken care of and I hope that we did make that a a community advisory. the you've had a chance to meet one time. One time. Okay. And and that is Is that going well? All right. Okay. All right. Thank you. But
thank you for your service and thank you for your work with for Winona County and all our veterans. Thank you. All right. 6.4. Approve applying for Minnesota Office of Justice Programs Community Crime Intervention and Prevention Grant.
6.5 Approve interim assessor appointment and professional services agreement with Mau County. 6.6 approve renewal of purchase of service and business associate agreements with plain view Elgen Millville Milville School District
number 2899 for transportation of children and youth and foster care. 6.7 approve renewal of purchase of service and business associate agreements with Winona Area Public Schools District number 861 for transportation of
children and youth in foster care. 6.8 approved contract with Hayawa Valley Mental Health Center to support post incarceration care coordination services for substance abuse disorders.
6.9 was pulled Uh 6.10 approve write off of uncollectible accounts. 6.11 acknowledge receipt of monthly finance and budget update for May 2025. 6.12
confirm payment of dispersements. I'll move to approve the consent business as it was read. Second. We have a motion by Commissioner Meyer, second by Commissioner Olsen to approve the consent business as read. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I.
Nay. Great. Nobody. Nay. Approve. All right. Um, general business. Um, 6 point uh 70 is 6.9. Approve. Ask me courthouse unit amendment 2025 2027. I
just had a few questions on that. That's not a new position. Is that correct? We're not We're not creating a new position and hiring a new person. The title is changed. So we took a a vacated position and we revamped it to be what
we needed. So yes, it's a new title. Um not hiring anybody, right? Well, just re we are hiring somebody, but it's FT that FTE that already existed. We are bringing a new another person on
hiring a new person. It will be a new person. Okay. You are filling an empty position though. Correct. It's not a new FTE in the sense of another body. So, we're currently we have a vacancy and we're trying to fill it, but we're rebranding it. And then Okay. So, that's
why it has to be added to this list. Are we removing something or is it just No, we're just adding. Okay. So, it's just a new way to describe somebody, right? Or a vacant position. Correct. Okay. I'll move to approve what was formerly item 6.9.
I'll second. Okay, we have a motion by Commissioner Vagley, seconded by Commissioner Meyer to approve. Um, I will not support because again it's another lost opportunity to provide a pay for performance uh element to our union contracts. So all those in favor
say I oppose. Nay. All right. Uh then uh 7.1 is 6.2 two and um remember that was the the contract that we questioned um because of the increase and um they did get uh some
reduction in the services and more importantly I I did double check in the MCIT roles they do review contracts and Miss Holty uh advised me that they recommended this um that does help us to
alleviate any potential you know uh problems with software vendors because we get solicited by all kinds all kinds of people have software they want to sell us and it's all cost comes with a big price tag. Um so it is good that that we have a higher level that looks for you know cyber security protecting
us on some of these contracts. So that that's encouraging that we're using that service to do that. So with that um I'll move to approve uh what was 6.2 which is now 7.01 approve contract renewal with Granicus. I'll second that. Okay. We have a motion by Commissioner Meyer,
second by Commissioner Vegley to approve the contract for Garnicus. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I. Oppos? Nay. Okay, it's carried. Thank you. Now we get to seven uh the 7.1 uh
receive presentation from Minnesota Intercount Association on annual legislative update. Well, I'm glad you have an update for us. It was a little touch and go if we would get here. Uh yeah, that that it was uh thank you uh madam chair, members
of the board. Uh my name is Nathan Jessen. I'm the executive director at the Minnesota Intercount Association. I actually started this past January. Came over came over from the League of Minnesota Cities. Uh my second day was the first day of the legislative session. So uh lots of things were
happening. Um so great. Thank you. Um so I I think first I just wanted to talk a little bit about like Micah's role at the capital. I would say that our primary role is to try to be connectors whether it's between your staff and uh the the capital or or you all and the
delegation and try to find out okay where where can you all be most helpful and your staff be most helpful while also representing this group of counties at the state and at the capital. We're really at our best when if it's not you, it's sometimes we can bring stories from Winona County to the legislature and to
the delegations and try and make these statewide issues that we work on be as relatable as possible. Um, and the other thing we do try to do is try to make our work a little more analytical um, and try to provide data and background and try to think about what the impact is on
the ground uh, once laws are passed. Um, in addition to kind of analyzing current state aids and programs and things like that. Um, we do have our whole team here today and they'll kind of uh introduce themselves as they come up to cover their issue area, but they're also
listed here. We can go to the next slide. Um, yeah. So, uh, we do have kind of regular, uh, things that we try to provide. We have a weekly legislative update, which I know always contains a lot of information, but we do try to
distill it and provide some narrative there. So it's not just this number changed to that number, this bill moved through that committee, but really try to explain why things are happening too. That's a really important part of our work. Um and uh we have the end of session report which came out yesterday
as well. Um and I would say the value of AMC is that they're a statewide organization and there's always a lot of value and weight that comes with being statewide and we're small enough to kind of be quick and responsive and focus on issues that are important to midsize counties. We're 17 counties. We added
Anoka and write this past January. You can go to the next one. Um so just wanted to talk a little bit about the session dynamics this year. Um first the first really big component actually happened in early December when the state budget forecast came out
projecting a $5 billion deficit in the outb surplus. But that and when the governor's budget came out in January, which uh recommended a lot of cost shifts onto counties, including cutting state aids to counties, it really created this mindset where we were
playing defense really right from the get-go at the capital. Whether it was cost shifts, uh cuts to counties or other areas. It was that was really the mindset. There was a legislator, veteran legislator that said to me at the beginning of the session, Nathan, this year it's not what you can get, it's what you can keep. You know, um and that
that was kind of our focus throughout session. And it was also a difficult dynamic given the tie in the house. Um, which is kind of unprecedented. The last time was 1979. Um, and so we just ended up playing defense on all fronts and navigating a very new different dynamic at the
capital. Um, we did end up in special session. Uh, most some bills got wrapped during regular session, about one-third of the state budget, twothirds of the state budget wrapped during special session. That meant a lot of decisions happening behind closed doors. There were some working group meetings that
were public, but even during some of those working group meetings, they were either peruncter, kind of like, okay, here's a deal. We're wrapping it up, or in some cases, like in tax committee, they were not making a lot of progress when they were meeting in public. I did want to just kind of say it u we'll have people go through issue by issue, but at
the end of the day, we did end up uh with a budget enacted on time. uh and we finished this uh banium essentially with a 1.9 current banium surplus but uh spending is still higher than revenues. So there is that structural balance problem that we'll be talking about
likely next year and the year after that at the capital. If we can go to the next one I want to talk about taxes a little bit. Um, so the tax target ended up being a combined a negative target of 118 million this banium and 190 million the
next benium. So what that means is that we're looking at either a combination of reduced spending in the tax area and when I say reduce spending in taxes that's basically just aids to local governments be they counties or cities that's the spending in the tax area or
increased taxes. Um we did have uh the leadership agreement included a couple tax increases. Um the two only ones of significance were increasing the cannabis gross receipts tax from 10% to 15%.
Um state sales tax also will apply to cannabis sales um and currently does uh to THC products. And the other significant tax increase was repealing the electricity exemption for data centers on sales taxes. uh data centers retain their software and hardware sales
tax exemptions. Um on the county front and for Winona County in particular, I did want to talk about in 2023 when the legislature legalized cannabis, um they did set aside this kind of 20% dedication of the gross receipts tax to
cities and counties to be split half and half between cities and counties. Um and the governor's budget proposed repealing it. the House budget proposed repealing it and the Senate budget proposed repealing it. It was um really difficult to uh to kind of combat that proposed
cut for a couple reasons. First, because these committees got targets and they're trying to figure out ways to reach those targets and do as little damage as possible according to them. And we couldn't really combat the uh we couldn't use the cost shift argument on
cannabis the way that we could with county program aid or or payment in lie of taxes or other things because counties weren't receiving that money yet. I think each county got like a $2,100 payment last September. Obviously that's negligible. So that was kind of the issue that that change did end up
getting enacted. So that that revenue source for counties is no longer going to be there. The only direct uh tax impact for Winona County that will come from any sale come from any sale of cannabis will be on the local sales tax component. You know, you all I think
have a 0.25% special. Um and then there's the county transportation sales tax. So those sales will be subject cannabis will be subject to that local sales tax just like it would be state sales tax. Um I did want to talk about CPA. We managed to avoid any cuts in county program aid. This is a really
significant win. and the Senate had proposed cutting CPA by as much as 20 million at one point. That's obviously a big issue statewide. I also think it's an especially big issue in Winona County. Uh Winona County has $82 per capita in CPA. The statewide average is
$58. So amongst all Micah counties, that's the third highest amongst any Micah county. If you're looking at per capita basis, it's 22nd highest overall. I do think talking about the per capita is a good indicator of like what it means for a county because uh looking at the overall payment is just going to be
so dependent on the population when uh like Henipin County for example they've got the highest CPA payment amongst any county but they're actually the lowest per capita payment right so it's just I think these per capita numbers are helpful um the other thing I want to talk about is avoiding any cuts to
payment in lie of taxes the governor had proposed a straight one-third reduction in payment in lie of taxes. People often think about PILT as if it's just this aid program for the northern part of the state, but it's really significant in southeastern Minnesota. Um I think so my
numbers here, we've uh Winona County receives receives about $1.1 million per year in PILT. Um so that's the 10th highest in the state, the second highest amongst any micro county, and that's almost $23 per capita compared to a statewide average of $8.30.
Um, so the other thing that the cut that we did end up uh having to take at the end of the day was uh reducing aquatic invasive species aid by 50% starting with AIDS payable in 2027. So I've got the number up here. Uh that's a $44,500
cut to to Winona. That's not until uh AIDS payable 2027. So next year your your AIS number will remain about the same. The last thing there are a couple uh issues that are kind of long-standing. Micah priorities, including the construction sales tax
refund. As you all may have heard, there's uh there's this kind of in theory exemption that counties have to not pay sales tax on construction materials, but because uh you're not going to separately bid labor and materials, it doesn't really exist in practice. We did have a bill hearing to
uh move that exemption forward this year, but it costs over $60 million a year. Um, so it was just really difficult to get any type of momentum for that in a year where we're taking cuts and we've got these negative targets. So, practically speaking, a lot of local governments end up introducing their own special exemption to get a
sales tax exemption on one particular project. But this year, none of those individual proposals uh move forward either. Um, just because again, the targets that the tax committee had, they had very little money. The special session tax bill was originally released
at just 12 pages. And that's bizarrely small for any omnibus tax bill, right? It ended up at 120 pages, but even that extra 110 pages added less than like $800,000 in total cost. Also, I should
have said at the top, I'm happy to take questions whenever or as we go, or we can do them at the end, whatever y'all's preference is. So, so we'd like to ask them as we go. So, on this sales tax, I know um get the right St. Cloud um
Sterns County is going to they're propos I think they've started construction, haven't they? Of their justice center. Yes. 200 It's a $223 million project. So, the sales tax alone is Do you know that figure off the top of your head? Um well, so if it's $223 million project, I
just have to, you know, multiply that number by 6.875%. 875%. So, it's going to be um I mean, so we paid it when we built our 20 15 million. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 15. Yeah. 15 million just in sales tax for building a new
criminal justice center that does the work of the state. Isn't that seems criminal? I mean, that you can charge a county 15 million to do what the state says we have to do. Yeah. And we and this is something that you know the legislature both Republicans
and Democrats are supportive of getting rid of this in theory, but it's just really tough to make it their top priority, especially when the price tag is that big. I actually think the the cost they assume is relatively low, lower than what the honest cost might be. You know, 60 million. I think it's
higher than that. Like you said, Sterns County, that's one project. That's $15 million right there. Um it's just we are trying to talk to the department of revenue and uh the department of labor and industry about what are some other ways can we get at this that don't uh
create the same kind of price tags because in theory we do have this exemption but it was just poorly written back in 2013 frankly um and it's it's been an ongoing issue but it is something we're going to try to take um some more creative approaches and how we
uh look at it next year and in future years just to avoid that price tag problem. Okay, thank you. Um, and if that's all I'm gonna we can go to the next slide. I'm gonna turn it over to Amber. Good evening, Madam Chair and
commissioners. It's a pleasure to be here this evening. My name is Amber Bachis. I'm with the firm of United Strategies and just started representing Micah on transportation issues this last legislative session. I have four months of seniority over Nathan. and I was hired in September of last year. Um, but
I am grateful for that extra time. We do have monthly county engineers meetings where we talked about the issues and Dave Kramer is a great participant and really helped get me up to speed on some of the issues impacting counties. So, it was really helpful to have that knowledge going into this legislative session. Um, as for the transportation
bill, it was one of those bills that was not enacted during the regular session. um they stopped having public meetings with the working group in the time before the special session started. Um the chairs were trying to negotiate a bill behind closed doors. They weren't very successful. So the bill got kicked up to leadership and it was ultimately
the Senate Finance chair and the co-chairs of the Ways and Means Committee in the House who really put together this final package. Um transportation was at a disadvantage. It had a very big budget uh negative budget target to meet. They had to cut $115
million for next bianium and $133 million in 28-29. And um historically about only $330 million of the transportation budget is uh general fund dollars. Most of the revenues are fuel taxes and registration fees and motor vehicle sales tax that go
to the trunk highway fund. Um and there's also special revenues for driver and vehicle services. So there wasn't a lot of general fund money to cut. I mean they had to cut pretty much a third of their general fund budget. largely that general fund money is for transit in uh greater Minnesota and the metro area as
well as active transportation. So um those areas got the biggest hit in terms of cuts. But Democratic legislators wanted to make sure that it wasn't just transit that was bearing the brunt of these costs. They wanted to make sure that roads as well that there was some um um balance between the modes in terms
of their cuts. Um so in the bill that was enacted. Um there was a change um last bianium they started dedicating the um sales tax on motor vehicle parts to the trunk highway fund um and they slowed down that schedule of turning
that over. So now some of that's going to stay in the general fund which ended up being a $94 million cut to the trunk highway fund in the next bianium. However, they were able to help offset that um by increasing the search charge
on electric vehicles. In 2017, the legislature for the first time imposed a search charge on EVs. Um and the reasoning behind that was to capture the lost revenue from the fuel tax as vehicles are getting more fuel efficient and there more EVs on the road. Um so to offset the cuts to the trunk highway
fund this year, they increased that EV search charge anywhere from $150 to $250 based on the value of your vehicle. Um and that raised $76 million. So the net loss to the trunk highway fund for the next bianium um is only around $18
million. Um how that hits CASA is um there's still a little increase next bianium of $3.8 million, but in the out bianium it's an $ 8.6 million cut to um the CASA formula for counties around the state. Um, one bright spot was despite the the
tough target, um, there was some additional money set aside, $3 million for the local government road wetland replacement program. I know you have a lot of wetlands here in Winota County. So, when there's a road construction project and wetlands are impacted, um, this program provides the funding to
create new wetlands elsewhere to offset the loss of that habitat. Um, and it was great to actually have some general fund cash for this. Historically, this program is funded through bonding and there's limitations on how you can use those dollars. So, the general fund dollars um gives the Bowser the agency
that oversees this program a little more flexibility. And I don't have it on this slide, but I should also mention since you have a license center here in Winno County, Winona County, uh there were um reimbursement for no fee transactions provided in the transportation bill. So
things like an address change on your motor vehicle or some of the transactions related to um veterans with a total disability um that don't pay any um fees right now. You can get reimbursement when you're helping them out and the ranges are anywhere from $2 to $12 depending on what that
transaction is. So that should help since um the deputy writer stars have been under attack so much the last few years and have been a loss leader instead of um helping you uh with your county budgets. If we could go to the next slide, please. Um, and then I wanted to talk a little bit about things
that didn't make it into the final bill. There were a lot of policy provisions um that didn't make it that we were happy to see not be in the bill, but we were hoping the first bullet on the list there was going to make it. Last bianium, the legislature enacted a new
program where the impacts of greenhouse gases and vehicle miles traveled had to be considered when you're building a highway capacity expansion project. Um, and when that program was created, they didn't provide any funding for the mitigation to do so. So, we were hoping
this session we could at least get some funding as well as have more details about the implementation of this program because it's kind of fuzzy right now. And unfortunately, we weren't successful. Um, we are going to keep an eye on it though because MDOT was estimating the cost of trunk highway projects with this um, mitigation could
increase anywhere from five to 40% and that's pretty big numbers for highway projects. Um, the things that we um were hoping to either change or prevent from being in the bill then were um, changing the state aid design standards. Right now, uh, mindot has rules that determine
what county and, um, city roads, how they should be built, the geometrics, um, all that sort of thing. And, um, the engineers pre appreciate that uniformity. It's helped reduce crashes on our roads as well as provide, um, some consistency when roads across
jurisdictions. Um, that provision was promoted by the Senate to um, be more flexible at the local level, but it was done so in a way that could have created chaos. So, we're glad that that didn't make the final package. Um, there was also language in the Senate bill that would have expanded how trunk highway
funds can be used. Right now, they are dedicated to roads and bridges. This would allow the state share of those funds to also be spent on trans on transit, on active transportation, and a little bit on greenhouse gas mitigation. And that was a big concern, especially for legislators on both sides of the
aisle from greater Minnesota where you don't have as much of that and those revenues would be diverted to that when there's already significant needs on the highway side. Um the legislature also was interested in setting some speed limits themselves on some county roads which again gave the county engineers a lot of heartburn.
That should be something that's decided by the locals. Um what did they wanted? They wanted to lower them or they wanted to lower them. Um they wanted to lower the speed on county. Yes. And yes, it was instances one of them there was a school went up and that makes sense, but
the the um the locals hadn't looked at having a school zone speed limit. I mean it was kind of crazy. So it was a lot of bad information that had trickled up to the state level that was driving these um proposals. So that was not in the final bill. Um then also um there was a Senate proposal that would have created
a new fund administered by Mandot to um provide revenue to businesses who um have a loss of business due to a highway construction project. Um when the proposal started, it would have been every um road authority would have been charged 1% to put in this fund. 1% of
the cost of a project to do this. Um, and there really weren't great parameters about who could qualify and how you would disperse that money and mind wasn't interested in being in charge of an economic development program. So, that didn't make the bill, but will be something to look forward to because I think people appreciate there
those impacts on businesses can be tough, but at the same time, having it come out of the the local road fund when those dollars are so scarce um was problematic. Um, so that is what was dropped. And if we go to the next slide, um want to talk about the bonding bill.
Um this was an unexpected and great win. Um we weren't sure if there wasn't even going to be a bonding bill this year. Um it takes a three-fifths majority of each body to pass one, which requires the Republicans and Democrats to get along and work together on something. Um and with such a tightly divided legislature,
that was very difficult. Um, in actuality, there was never a House bill or a Senate bonding bill that passed either body in the regular session. Um, towards the end, the Senate released a spreadsheet, a wish list of things they might do if there were one. Um, but that hadn't happened in the regular session.
Um, in the special session, it was when they announced the agreement around that and the parameters for that that we learned there would be a bonding bill. It was $700 million. Um it was really Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson who was the one who helped get this across the finish line because he hadn't been
engaged in any of the um leadership discussions earlier in the session with regards to the global agreement and targets and that sort of thing. But he did sign on for special session and he um insisted there be a bonding bill and that there be more money um allocated in it for roads and water. So that was
great for us. So programs like the local road improvement program received $42 million, $20 million for the local bridge rehabilitation program and then another $5 million for that local government road wetland replacement program. So $8 million total this session and those numbers far exceed
anything that had been discussed when you know people were talking about what a bill could look like. I think the only money initially people thought that there could be if there were a bonding bill for these would be maybe three million for the wetland replacement and $13 million for bridges. So this was a
significant success and will really help um counties then have additional revenues for some of those um big ticket transportation projects in their districts. Can't do much though. Those figures look big, but I know it's still the need is is huge. And I know that the
the bridge list alone is about $800 million worth of projects statewide over the next five years, but you know, that's much better than $13 million or zero if there hadn't been anything. Um, and the hopes of doing a $700 million bill this year was that there'd still be the capacity to do at least a $700
million bill or more next legislative session. So hopefully we'll continue to see movement in this area. I should say the Senate Capital Investment Committee, half of the members are for the transportation committee. Um, and when they had Mandot before them early in the session to talk about the governor's bonding recommendations, which only had
$5 million total for all transportation, they really went after him because, you know, when you it just increases the cost not to deal with these sort of projects. So, so great advocates there. And with that, um, I will turn it over to Rachel to talk about the environment part of the bonding bill.
And you can go back to the the prior slide. Um, perfect. Thank you so much. Uh, so my name is Rachel Cogic. I am Micah's environmental leison at the capital. This is my second year working with Micah. Uh but my first time being in front of you all. So great to be here tonight. Um so there were just a few
things that were included in the capital investment bill that are relevant for Micah's environmental priorities that we wanted to call out. Um the first two bullet points here on this slide um will both be overseen by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. Um, so first there was $6 million for the capital
assistance program or cap funding. Uh, in prior bonding bills from what I understand that has been uh cap funding has been appropriated for specific local projects rather than just kind of a pool that the MPCA gets to decide what projects get funded. Uh, but what we saw with the bonding bill is that there were
really no local projects included. It was kind of more of this approach of, you know, we're going to give the state agencies funding and go from there. Um I think that was part of the negotiations um and just in an effort to get a bill across the finish line. Um in conversations with uh MPCA after the
special session um you know they were not involved in the negotiations on a bonding bill. They didn't really they don't really care how the money gets uh gets across the finish line as long as as the money is there for these types of projects. And so you know they they definitely have kind of their own internal list of of um you know projects
and facilities that they'd like to see some of this money go to. but that has not been shared publicly, but I think that'll be, you know, kind of part of our next steps um and and having conversations with them to see um where some of these dollars might go. Um there was also $6 million um to the MPCA for a
new statewide drinking water contamination mitigation program. So, this is something that uh the governor had included in his uh his bonding bill um that was released earlier this year. Um, and so I think just a reflection of,
you know, both from, as Amber said, you know, the Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson really wanting to see funding for water projects and I think just a recognition, um, you know, from the governor and and I think all legislators that, um, you know, some of these emerging contaminants are going to be really costly to address and so we need
to start putting more state resources in new ways to to these. You said 6 million public health MPCA. So that's MPCA will choose how they how that funding is allocated. Counties are eligible recipients of that funding. Um but because it's a new program, it's a
little bit uncertain kind of what that implementation will look like. So I think that's that's how the state does it. Yes. Yes. And so yeah, whatever they decide we Yeah. But I think um the MPCA I think is at least, you know, especially with with the cap funding and so I think it's it's
fair to kind of hold them to the same standard. I think they are they want to be transparent and and you know share insights on how they will choose to to spend funds but I guess I don't have great confidence in MPCA concerned from a public health perspective on drinking water. Yes. And it that it but it
doesn't it says drinking water but are they more concerned about agricultural um fish kills in the stream or are they worried about what we're drinking? Yeah, I mean I would say it's it's unclear as it's written in the bonding bill. Uh but I think that's kind of where where it
can be our job um and making sure that they understand, you know, the the range of needs and when I do the rest of my um environment update there there's plenty of money through MDH to address drinking water issues across the state. So we'll there there is other money available
besides just the 6 million. Um, and then I did just want to mention even though this money doesn't go directly to counties, but there was a pretty large amount of money, 176 million to the public facilities authority um, for local water projects. And so some of that's drinking water, some of that's, you know, storm water, things like that.
So um, there's I know there were a lot of local, you know, again, individual local projects, uh, bonding projects introduced this year and there's a backlog there. So good to see some money going out for those things. Great. Thank you. And I think Nancy will be next.
Now, Nancy, we we we like to get out before the sun sets and I know you're home. I know it's you got a full on list. Yeah, madam chair, commissioners, I always start by can I just give you my 30-page report for your for your leisurely reading. Um,
thanks for having me tonight. I'm Nancy Sleski and I represent Micah in the area of public health and human services and it's a pleasure to be here tonight. So, I guess we're going to go to the next slide. Um, going into this session, I want to say that all of the county organizations
had the same three top priorities in the health and human services space. Everybody's been talking about these issues for a number of years, and we are happy to report that we made some progress this year for sure. The first item, you're all familiar with the SSIS and systems modernization, the green
screen technology that all that your uh workers are are wrestling with on a day-to-day basis. Um the end deal was $35 million um in the conference committee um the health and human services conference committee. Going into the discussions on that or the
negotiations on that, the Senate had it had a $10 million um recommendation whereas the House had 35 um or excuse me, they had 40. They settled at 35. We have an additional $10 million that was set aside last year.
So, we've got $45 million to hopefully leave the green screen technology behind us in not the too distant future, but we'll see. And I'm sorry, Nancy, what was the estimate to fix the problem? Um, Madam Chair, commissioners, 80 to$100 million. That 45 does allow us to draw
down federal funds. So, you got to develop an app. Everything based on an app. So, we got bright young people. Can't somebody come up with an app to address this problem? I got young people out there. We're gonna Good question, Madam Chair. I'm sure
there are people. I'm sure there are. Um, the next item I would mention is men choices. That's another issue we've been dealing with for a long time. Those folks who have the same health condition um from year to year and those situations are not going to change from year to year are
put through this pretty ownorous uh reassessment process every year that can take 8 10 hours um to go through. So, we've been talking about how do we streamline that for those folks? And I'm happy to say that the reassessments now can be done every two years with a full
uh reassessment the third year. The client can request at any time a full reassessment and and we would provide that for them. The other thing is we are allowed to do remote uh reassessments for now four consecutive assessments. It was two prior to this year, so we can
now do four. And then verbal attestation takes the place of re of um signatures for the service initiation. However, once that uh service has been completed or the the um the um the process has been completed then the assessor has to request a signature from
the client within 30 days of that of the completion of that. Those were our three priorities that again we worked with the other county organizations on. Um there were other entities that also wanted to do more in the way of min choices including hospitals and others and um
there is language that allows uh hospitals to contract the service out. Uh counties are responsible for the oversight of those contracts but they are if if we're behind they can contract that service out. They also modified the uh the qualifications the assessor
qualifications. One only needs a two-year degree now. And then counties do have to begin that assessment within 20 days of the request with an um with an idea of the estimated timeline of how long that assessment is going to take to complete. And finally, the department's
required to have a dashboard on assessment completions on their website. So that was the second item. The third priority admissions uh direct care and treatment. Um that has also been an issue for a long time. Um, within the
system, there was a work group that got together, I think over probably a little over a year that had county folks on it, human services commissioners, county attorneys, and sheriffs, and they came up with a number of uh, recommendations with the other group, and some of those things were addressed this year. I just
want to mention what they are. Uh, the human services policy bill did extend the 48 hour rule. They put a pause on that again for an additional two years. Um while we were happy to see that we also this issue was also conditioned with the legislature dealing with
capacity issues which is what we've been struggling with for a very long time both at the state level and frankly the local level. Um so to that end in the uh human services bill there's $10 million uh for each bianium and then $34 million
in of operating expenses in starting in fiscal 29. Then the good news is the bonding bill passed and that had the additional $55 million. So with that we have $75 million which will fund an additional 50 beds at AMRTC. So we're very happy with
that outcome as well. Couple of other things that I'm sorry it's probably too early to tell but those 50 beds are available to everybody every county and there's not Henipin buys 20 of them and type thing. there. Oh yeah, Madame
Chair, um we know a little bit in that the hospitals have 10 beds. If if people have been languishing in a hospital bed for a certain period of time, they get moved to the top for the next two years. But otherwise, it's supposed to be, you know, those that need it acuity wise the
most. Up and hold them. No, they shouldn't that should not be that happens in a lot of facilities. Yeah, we lose capacity. Okay. Thank you. Sure. Um, a couple of other things. I would just say that the priority admissions review panel is extended uh for another additional two years. They do have an
initial uh report due next February of 2026. Um, they also put $100,000 into a buildout plan for a locked psychiatric residential treatment facility within DCT. So, that's something that they're also looking at. Uh what didn't happen,
I should just mention that as you know, we've had a two-year reprieve for those folks that have been um committed as mentally ill and dangerous and are sitting in one state operated facility waiting for a bed in another. AMRTC to St. Peter as an example. Um we had a
two-year reprieve which saved counties significant money. We asked for an extension on that. That's just not something that um happened this year. So starting July 1st, we start picking up that 100% when when that person has deemed that they no longer need that level of care any longer at AMRTC.
The estimate is about $14 million in 2627 statewide and $18 million in 28 and 29. And the other thing that was not addressed yet that we continue to pound on is community resources. We we need beds within our facilities. We need step
down facilities and in our facilities. Next is cautious and I believe you have this in the presentation and we might have to bounce around with the slides here. I think it's there it is. So as you know um the human services is the
one of the biggest parts of the state budget along with education and so they they they got the the largest uh budget cut spending cut. They needed to find $300 million in the first bianium and about 800 in the second. to that and they said, "Well, we're going to maybe
look to our partners, our county partners, and see what what they can do to help us." This slide is illustr illustrative of the three plans, the House, the Senate, the Governor, and then finally the the uh final deal that the conference committee came up with is on the right. And if you look at the
bottom, just looking at the totals, you can see, you know, where we started was significantly higher than where we did end. Um, I would just point out a couple of things that we um I mentioned the the MIND population that's going to be we're
going to be picking that piece up. And also um there's some a grant reduction of about $1.6 million. I do want to point out in the last column there's $18 million um related to min choices. Senator Abler has been talking about
this for a while. He was looking to try and do some kind of a flat reimbursement on that. Currently, we get reimbursed through the random time moment study process. And so, the Department of Human Services is charged with finding trying to come up with some kind of a reassess or or um a reimbursement process for us.
They need to report that back next year. I I'm sorry. I've seen that I think in one of the email, but I don't think it's in our packets. It's not. It came in a one of the public uh Yeah. documents you have. So, okay. One of the updates. I I know I saw it. Okay. I do have I have
some hard copies. Do you want it? No. Just like Yeah, it was in there. Yeah, it was the 42 page end of session. Came out today page 18. The colors caught my attention. Like I said, yeah, it's it's a good good
graphic. Yeah, with good information. I would just point out in that last column again, um, counties at one time were going to be picking up a residential cost share relative to disability waiverss and in the end they dropped that, but we are part of a work group
that's supposed to find human services savings within the human services um system and they are banking $89 million on our finding that. So that gives us a couple of years to to figure that out. But just so you know, those two two last numbers are whether is is the $61
million or the 151 if we do not find that savings. So those that's interesting. They expect so who makes up that work group. So yeah, I should have mentioned that Micah has two two appointments. AMC has two, Maxa has two, and then other other folks
within the human services space. So yeah, well it it's good and bad. I mean the people that do the work should be able to find the things but it's amazing that they're hired elected to do the job and they delegate it back where their partners you know. Yeah. Yeah. Right. I
do have to make a comment though. You do know that they don't you asked that you have to sign something every two years or something. You do the legislators know that we are not teaching cursive in our public schools. How does it what makes an X look different from the next
X? They don't they don't teach cursive. So I mean there's people that don't know how to sign their name. I don't know what they do but maybe you could bring that up to them sometime. Be happy to do that chair. Teach cursive. Um as it relates to these cautious I just have to call out uh Representative
Jacob. He was on the conference committee and he was a great county voice. We met with him a lot and he he certainly had the experience and and um the ear of the folks and um it was good to have him on that committee because in the he didn't vote for that bill and usually if you don't vote for the bill, you're not going to be on the conference
committee. They they put him on that conference committee for the county voice. So that was very helpful. Uh let's see here. All right, I'm going to move on to or I think I have to go back. I'm sorry
to Yep. Here we go. So, so the health and human services bill, which is where a lot of the public health um information is, um that was chaired by representative or senator Wickland, representatives uh Backer and Beerman, they also had a negative spending target, but not as deep as human
services. It was $50 million and $175 million. This is where the $35 million for the SSIS money lives. So, that was a that was a huge issue for us. Another couple things I would mention is the EMS and ambulance services issue has been an
issue especially in in greater Minnesota. They did put some some money into it this year, $16 million into the ambulance operating deficit grant program and then um money also for the rural EMS uncompensated care pool and also into education reimbursement.
One of the things that I like to mention with EMS is non-emergency medical transportation is something that counties have been working with or on in the system um for some time. When I started with Micah, which I I think it's like 15 years ago now or so. Um the
state ran that and it was run by a broker and it was managed by the state and in the middle of the night during conference committee we were gifted that as as a good partner. So we took that over and you know 15 years later we're going full full circle and it's going back to the broker model and I think we
by the way in the metro area engaged with the same broker when we were running it and still the same broker I believe will be operating it back at the state level. So just want to want to mention that. Um couple of other things um in terms of um the health and human
services bill they did put money into extending the audio only teleaalth provision for two years and then I want to man mention um public health know that this is near and dear to your heart madam chair they put $2.6 million into infectious disease prevention they
partially replaced the the cut from last year on public health last year they cut uh $3.6 6 million a year. It had to do with the local and tribal public health grants for cannabis related prevention. They cut 3.6 last year. They replaced it with partially replaced it with $2.5
million this year. Other things, they did cut the emergency preparedness grant by $850,000 a year and they also reduce the public health infrastructure infrastructure pilot projects by $4 million a year. They also raised a a
myriad of Department of Health uh fees and that's how they kind of came up with with the money for public health um along with capturing some unexpended grant grants etc. They also did uh return $21 million to the healthcare
access fund for the repeal of the public option and the appropriation that went with that. And then they did some things with um prior authorization to save some money and then the elimination of Minnesota care for undocumented adults. Um that's savings of 56 million in the
first bianium and 91 million in the second. So that is where they found their savings in that bill. What didn't happen? Just want to mention a few things. You all know that the Minnesota African-American Family Preservation Child Welfare Disproportion
Disproportion Disp proportionality act also known as the act from now on. Sorry, um is going into effect statewide January of 2027. There is a pilot or a phase in um going on right now with Henipin and Ramsey. in
that phase in. We had talked to a number of legislators um primarily in the greater Minnesota area about the other 85 counties needing to be phased in here as well. We just don't think we're going to be ready for this um for show you know for to be showtime at this point. We were basically told it's premature
work with the statewide working group which is just getting underway. They've had like three three meetings thus far. Just want to call out the u the commissioners there. Um, Micah's uh, commissioners are Otterill County, Kurt Mortonson, and then Carla Bigum from Washington County are the two Micah um,
appointees along with commissioners Angela Connley and Joan Lee from Poke County. They are to have an interim report of their findings by January. And I don't know what that's going to look like yet because they, like I said, they're just getting getting underway. They have some subgroups that have been appointed and and they're they're
starting that process, but um, we will see what that looks like. we will have time next year to adjust this and I think that's something that'll be on everybody's priority list if we're not ready. We do not want to fail. I mean, it's not something that anyone wants to make a mistake in. There was also
language that I would mention that would have prevented counties from contracting for case management services and that was um offered as an amendment withdrawn. I think there'll be more discussion on that. It it re involved a family um kind of a prominent a very
well-known family from uh Ramsey County that's at the capitol um and they're both disabled and they lost their housing and so it and she happens to be city council and so there was some you know some politics involved there. I think we'll see some discussion on that but that would be a disaster um for for
counties if we were to lose that ability to contract. And the other thing I would mention is the Senate Judiciary um chair had a proposal that would have established a civil commitment coordinating division within the office of the attorney general's office and
that did not make it into it. It kind of the way it was the way it was phrased it it was very duplicative of what we're already doing and so in the end that was dropped from consideration. And then one other thing I just would mention that there was consideration of of raising the provider tax from 1.8% to
2%. That did not happen. It was amazing what that 2% would have raised to. I mean, it was an incredible incredibly huge number, but that that did not happen. It remains at 1.8%. With that, I'd be happy to answer any
questions if you dare. I don't know. There's a lot in human overwhelming. And thank you for trying to explain it. And and I I know our staff works with it. And thank Kevin they know it better than I. Yes. I call upon your staff all of
the time. Yeah. Well, I would say at the last board meeting, I think the icebreaker was for everyone to say what the biggest win was, right? And the top three were not make like pushing back on the cost shifts, the additional beds um for
mental health. What was the third thing? SSIS. Yes. Being able to have updated technology. I've been hearing about that for forever. just need an app. You know, it all can be done on an app. I mean, we got to find them. It's going to be interesting to see if
the legislature will be called back into special session depending upon what plays out in Washington DC because that is going to have a tremendous what is it? Half of the state budget is health and human services um etc. Um and a third of it is I'm sorry is from the
federal government and a third of that is HHS. So, it's gonna be we're not done yet. No. So, we may need to see you again. Probably just you, but um nothing against the rest of you, but yeah, Madam Chair and Commissioner, you're
Yeah, you're we're not sure what that's going to look like. And there's so many dynamics in in St. Paul. We're going to have to after things settle down in a few weeks, there's going to have to be a special election and things that we've not talked about yet because it's premature to do so. But yeah, we're
we're worried. There is a healthy rainy day fund whether they want to tap into that at this point. I think there's over $3 billion 3.2 or something like that. But yeah, it's going to be significant. I I believe thank you for your work.
Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thanks. In the way I said that last comment, I want to clarify. I'm glad that you're all here. I'm I'm grateful that you guys come in person versus the Zoom option. So, um, I just want to like let you off the hook in terms of, but I'm I'm so very grateful that you come down to
Little Little Winona County. Happy to be down here. Um, all right, we can go to the next slide and I'm back to talk about the rest of our environment. Oh, sorry, the slide after I forgot we had the charts. Oh, keep so many. Okay. Jeez, how many slides does Nathy have?
Okay. Um so I wanted just to start with uh just a reminder of what some of our priorities were uh for environment issues heading into 2025. Um I think maybe a little bit unique to some of the other issue areas is the this work plays out across you know five or six
different committees um at the capital and so there's just there are a lot of things to track and a lot of different places to track them. Uh I spent a lot of my time at the capital talking about solid waste issues and I think counties are very much a trusted resource when it comes to solid waste management. Uh you
know was in a number of committees where you know we had various county commissioners testify or we had submitted testimony that was you know called out and highlighted by members of that committee. Um when we're telling them you know this is what we need. These are the challenges we're facing and this is what would help that is you know legislators listen to that and so
thank you all for your support. um you know just some of the other issues uh you know there was a little bit of conversation around emerald ashbor um I know that that you know at this point um I think you all have dealt with that you know we're just seeing that now still spreading to other parts of the state um
but we know that there's still more work needed to be done there um a you know lots of conversation this year in particular especially in the tax committee around aquatic invasive species um you know I'll talk a little bit more about that in a second um and then groundwater contamination and right
and down here uh in Winona County. Um you know, the response to the 2023 EPA petition around nitrate contamination. Um but there's other types of contaminants that are concerns and and so it's great that there's been, you know, some additional some resources, initial resources, um you know, for for
you all in this region of the state, but but we know that that's a statewide concern. And so, um you know, that's a place that we saw this session in particular and just generally because of some of the funding sources available for clean water work. um lots of money uh spent in that in that topic. Uh we
can go to the next slide. Uh so just kind of an overview and kind of context and some highle updates. Uh you know as as Nathan mentioned in kind of his you know initial kind of session context slide. Uh a lot of the committees who whose jurisdiction covers
our environment priorities had lower negative targets. And so uh when it comes to things especially like with solid waste, right? like the what we're asking for there, what we need there is is money is funding to support the projects and the good work that counties do, but that's very difficult uh to ask
for in a year where there's just not a lot of money a lot of money to go around. Uh legacy is an exception for sure just with the clean water fund and having that, you know, $300 million um just spent just on clean water fund activities. I mean, I know that Winona
County and Micah are well represented with Commissioner Meyer. Um, and so grateful to have that expertise, uh, being shared with that group. And then I mentioned the bonding bill, uh, the funding that was passed there. Um, you know, we'll call out again the the 50%
reduction in aquatic invasive species aid. Um, I know, you know, there are some Micah counties where that's a hundred, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars in in loss funding. I know it's a little bit of a smaller impact, but right, it's still an impact. that's still, you know, $4ome,000 that you all don't have. Um, and so, you know, I
acknowledge that that is still difficult. Um, you know, kind of related to solid waste issues. You know, a lot of the conversation around solid waste is, you know, funding and resources for counties, but also, you know, what are other ways that we can try to reduce the amount of waste that's coming into the
waist stream? Um, and and have other players, right? you know, industries, companies that are producing this waste. Um, have them, you know, have some skin in the game when it comes to managing this. Um, and so last year that really came uh came out with the packaging waste and cost reduction act, which
would we were able to get across the finish line and that's just in the very early stages of implementation. This year, uh, we also had a conversation around legislation that would have uh that would establish a a similar kind of product stewardship um program for electronic waste and
batteries. just knowing again, you know, the toxicity that those products are bringing into the waist stream and the additional cost and and right and dangers that come with um with those products. Um but I think you know because we had this great success last year that did create a little bit more
push back and especially just with the um you know the political dynamics at the capital and and there being you know a tie in the house and just a one seat uh DFL majority in the Senate. um I think a lot of hesitancy and you know let's see what happens with the packaging bill and how that works before we start expanding to other types of
products um but we were able to protect that packaging bill you know again there were you know a lot of industry folks coming in um who would like to see that rolled back and and significantly amended um and make a lot of major exceptions to that um and so we were
able to um you know to kind of keep that at bay for now um and there really wasn't a lot of public conversation around that you know in committee or on the house or senate floor. Um so that is is good for now. Um but do expect that that will continue to be um you know the kind of concept of product stewardship
in general will continue to be a discussion at the capital. Um and and then you know the packaging bill especially next year. I think we'll see that that push continue. Uh data centers were uh I would say an unexpected point of contention. Um you know I know Dakota
County has a lot of projects. I don't know if that's as much of a if there's things that are being scoped out in Winona in Winona County as much, but there were a lot of concerns from, you know, environmental advocates around the specifically the water and electricity usage that those types of projects require. Um, and so I'll talk a little
bit, but there were some, um, you know, kind of water protections included as part of a standalone data centers bill. And I think just the fact that there needed to be a standalone data centers bill um really shows how much of a a sticking point that really ended up being in some of those end of session
negotiations is they had to just take it out and and have it be its own own thing that was um negotiated amongst leaders. Uh and then again you know lots of conversation around emerald dash bore but not a lot of not a lot of action not a lot of resources ultimately put towards that which is unfortunate. Uh
and then the next slide and my last slide. Oh, I think I maybe this is in two different slides. Um so again I mentioned the legacy bill and the clean water funding. Um that was included in that. Um really good numbers. Um to your question earlier uh chair uh just on
some of the funding there. you know, the MDEA has about 33 million uh coming out of the legacy bill and the Department of Health has around 30 million and those are going, I think, to the types of activities that would be particularly relevant um for your county and and kind
of your uh your concerns around clean water uh for the environment bill. I I covered uh some of this already uh but we'll just say that you know they had uh they had to cut 6.5 million in general fund dollars in the next bianium and they got just a couple million
additional dollars to spend looking into 2028 and 2029. Um so really not any like major changes were seen there. But one of the ways that they were able to meet those targets is they did increase some fees. Uh they increased watercraft search charges. So just you know different dollar amounts depending on the type you know size of boat and what
it's being used for. Um and that money will go to aquatic invasive species management. Um that is again that's money that's going to the state. Um and so again, you know, it doesn't always trickle down um maybe in the way that we'd like to see in counties. Um but good to see additional resources going
to to that work. Um and then also increases in water permits and usage fees and that will go towards groundwater protection activities. And then lastly, in the environment bill, uh they did increase the amount of um money uh coming out of the closed landfill
investment fund which um that language that statute language is going to expire this summer. So they had to they extended that another four years to 2029. Um and then that was set at 4.5 million that MPCA could access for those for those types of project or those
activities. Um and now that's at 6 and a half million. So they get a little bit more. I'm not CL the closed landfill investment fund. Yes. Yes. Um so yeah so that was in the environment bill and then I think the next slide I think this
one is actually my last slide. Okay. Uh so the tax bill uh we did a lot of really great work and as you know from what I understand you know this is just my second session with Micah but we did we talked a lot about this in 2024 and from I understand this has been an ongoing conversation around county score
grants and getting that remaining 27% of the solid waste management tax revenue that's collected getting that actually to the counties for their work to to manage waste in a better way. I think especially as we're facing down the 2030 deadline for meeting statemandated
recycling goals, uh this is going to feel just increasingly uh you know we are going to make this increasingly top of mind for for lawmakers. Um you Nathan kind of gave an overview of the dynamics and the tax committee. You know the money wasn't there. This would cost
around 32 or $33 million um a year and so it's not a small amount of money and the money just wasn't there in the tax committee. So really good work. You know, had 35 House members on our House bill, you know, members of both parties, every member of the tax committee,
almost every member of the environment committee. Every legislator understands, you know, in theory why this needs to happen, why this money should be going to counties for this work. But when the resources aren't there, there's only so much that you that you can really do. So before next session, get a couple
dumpsters, put them out in front of the gold horses, and then every time we come to the capital or anything, every bring a bag of recyclables or garbage and throw them in the appropriate good good creative visual. Yes. I mean, yeah, it's they um but again, this is a place where I think the reason that we're even able
to get this bipartisan support is is because it's counties that are, you know, that are pushing for this and that have done such a good job of explaining to their lawmakers why this this work and this funding is so important. So, I think this is something that we'll yeah, like I said, continue to really push on.
Um, and so, but yes, but unfortunately, just again with the the tax target this year, there was not additional funding for SCORE. Garbage or recyclables? Both. I would say both. Yeah. Yeah, I think both. Um, and
then finally, the the data centers bill. Um just some of the again the water protections that were included as part of that just in case that is ever going to be uh a thing that you're that you're looking at here in Winona County is uh there's a pre-application evaluations of water usage requirement. Um and then a
couple new permit conditions. So an applicant has to ensure that they're taking adequate measures to protect public health. uh they have to reasonably consider which you know maybe leaves a little bit of wiggle room uh but reasonably consider water conservation and watershed health. Um
and then if it's determined that uh you know there's maybe a concern about the um you know the water usage a project would require might exceed uh the water that's available in a given area then the applicant would conduct an aquafer test. Um, and the last thing that maybe
that I'll actually say is uh I know last year there was some funding in the agriculture bill to uh again address that 2023 EPA petition around nitrate contamination. Uh we did not see any significant or really any uh funding in the egg bill for that type of work this
year. Um there was a small amount of money for an evaluation of Mstead County's soil health and water uh program. Um I think they had asked for a larger amount to try to spread that model. uh to the rest of the region and potentially beyond that. Um but we're
starting with a study and then maybe we'll see where things go. So happy to answer questions that folks have. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you so much. Good evening, Madam Chair, members of the board. Uh we can advance. Awesome.
My name is Amelio Lamba. Uh, as you saw previously, I am uh part of Micah as anformational resource in our public safety and correction space. I do still represent Winona on behalf of the Association of Minnesota Counties uh for where I'm the public safety uh policy analyst. So, looking at public safety
and corrections, uh once again, we saw it combined with the judiciary committee. Uh it was one of very few committees this session that received a positive target of which it was actually the highest with 170 $107 million available to spend. I will note to you all that the majority of that funding
was dedicated to the Department of Public Safety and Department of Corrections for their operation adjustments and deficiency requests. The little amount of money that was left over after that was put towards a lot of law enforcement training programs such as the Philando Castile training uh training fund um as well as the
establishment of the Minnesota Victims of Crime Account where resources and supports would go towards individuals that were victims of crime. Um things that were very notable for our counties in our public safety correction space really come around our community supervision. Uh there was not a lot of changes in this area was not extremely
consequential this year. Uh however, we were able to institute a three-year averaging into our community supervision formula. This was really critical because a lot of trends right now are showing that our year-over-year total populations across our state and our counties are going to continually decrease uh as a result of previous
legislation that is passed. Uh so now we are going to allow our counties to include the most recent three years that come out of that probation survey that's done by the Department of Corrections. Uh from 2022 to 2023, I think we saw around a $9 million drop in what would
have been allocated for the statewide pot of funding. So this three-year averaging is going to allow us to have a little bit more predictability and stability for our counties. uh for Winona County who contracts with the DOC for these services. Uh this is very important because your guys' subsidy now will stay at a little bit of a higher
level and the Department of Corrections will be able to provide still a higher amount of staffing as well as resourcing. Uh one change that is not up on the screen that we worked with the DOC a lot on and I'm sure your finance folks will be really excited about is the your finance folks no longer will
receive your subsidy and then have to be build back by the DOC. The DOC reached out to us and said that it was causing a lot of confusion. So now the DOC will obtain the funding and provide the staffing as well as the programming and then your staff will receive a detailed report of everything that was
administered to your county at the end of the year for your guys's transparency. Uh, additionally, uh, does not really apply much to our DOC county since they've already sunset it, but uh, supervision fees are extended now till 2029, previously set to sunset in 2027.
So for counties that did utilize this tool, it would allow them revenue until we are able to fully fund our community supervision formula which did receive increased investments in 2023, but still not at the level in which we know it's necessary. Uh one thing again that Winona County
would be a little bit happy about here is the proration of the interstate compact unit. This unit uh resides at the DOC although a separate unit and state function uh manages the transfer of individuals on supervision between states. So, a lot of our partnering states, North Dakota, Wisconsin, uh will
have individuals on supervision that transfer between them. Uh what was previously occurring was the Department of Corrections was utilizing simply the subsidies from DOC counties to pay for the functioning and operations of this unit. It's now landed in a more equitable space where it's now spread
out across all 87. So, that should raise Winona County subsidy up a little bit more and still for the DOC provide a little bit more support and funding and resources for Winona County. Uh, one thing that actually received a lot of support and actually was included within the Senate's final proposal, but was
removed in the 11th hour uh, in the agreement that ultimately saw the closure of the Stillwater prison was continuation of the 25% state share of the sentencing to service program. Uh, unfortunately that was an agreement with the governor uh, and leadership uh, pri I want to say about an hour before the
conference committee. So unfortunately that 25% share of funding was sunset uh and was agreed on by the conference committee uh prior to the end of the regular session. Uh we've worked a lot with the DOC and I've dug in a little bit more because a lot of counties are considering or potentially considering continuing the sentencing to service
program and picking up that additional 25% if a county does choose to uh go forward with that. Uh one thing that I've been looking into is where does that liability land if an individual is injured or worse while still on a work site. Uh currently right now the statute that outlines that is still active and
not repealed as a result of the state's 25% share. So our understanding is that their removal of funding for the program does not absolve them of the liability for authorizing a program to exist. And so a county would continue as the investigating authority should any of those claims come about submit them to
department of corrections and the DOC will reimburse that. Uh last in the community supervision space we saw changes to the Minnesota Rehabilitation and Reinvestment Act. Uh really these changes just allow a little bit more of a tougher on crime approach allowing the commissioner now to revoke earn ini
incentivized release credit from individuals previously that was not revocable and also requiring the commissioner of corrections to consider public safety factors as well as individual stability and behavior prior to applying their earn incentivized release credit. Uh and then lastly on
the page you'll see here the full decommissioning of the Stillwater Prison is scheduled for 2029. This again as I mentioned was something that came about an hour before the conference committee was set to meet in a deal with leadership in the governor's office. Uh a lot of pressures amounting with the
department of corrections uh necessary operating adjustments and deficiency requests led to this. As many people are aware uh the Stillwater Prison which is is located in Bayport actually uh had $180 million in deferred maintenance uh and was likely set to see some level of
a decommissioning scheduled in the future. However, this created sort of the perfect storm for them to execute it a little bit quicker. Uh, so is our crime rate down in the state of Minnesota that would put people in prison? So, with that, we've reached out to the Department of Corrections and
asked them a little bit more about that. Our initial uh response to them was, "What impact is this going to have on our counties? Are you going to put more individuals on supervision as a result of the closure of this prison?" Uh what we've received back from Commissioner Schnell and US assistant commissioner uh Kelly Mitchell was that this will have
no impact. They anticipate right now with their numbers. They have capacity at existing facilities and in the way in which they anticipate previously anticipate MRA to unfold that there will be no increase or changes to what they already previously informed our counties
on. So as far as writing Yeah. So we're we're continuing contact with them on that and we're we're uh being good partners. Uh so as far as the crime rate, I would say it's not drastically down in a sense that would you know maybe push them towards this. However,
it was more of a financial move as well as the existing condition of that facility. Um and that is what I had for public safety and corrections. As I said, it wasn't super consequential this year, but uh we were able to avoid any proposed cost shifts or any cuts. Um, and actually for Winona County, a lot of
the cost expansions such as that proration of the interstate compact unit, um, actually does help the county with their subsidies. So, I'm willing to stand for any questions. Okay, thank you guys. Don't break any laws that put you in jail on the way back.
Okay, back to me. Uh, we can go to the next slide. So, I wanted to talk a little bit about a couple issues. Earn, sick, and safe time and paid leave. It's pretty ordinary for the legislature a year or two after they pass a really big new program or uh law change to look back
and say, "Okay, let's uh smooth out some of the cracks here." Um, we were pursuing some changes to these programs like uh evenly splitting the employee employer retention premium or sorry, not retention, the premium rate uh for paid leave or trying to make sure these benefits don't stack up on one another.
uh we weren't able to get uh we were able to get some momentum in the Senate on that on earn sick and safe time specifically. They did pass a bill with uh almost all Republicans and a number of Democrats voting in favor of it. We didn't really get any momentum on the House. the issues kind of got wrapped up
in uh other questions and proposals around these programs like small small business exemptions that weren't really related to our requests but the people felt really passionate about one way or the other. It was really difficult even when we were meeting with DFL members like oh you know some of what you're
saying makes sense but it was difficult to get those issues to move forward when those other bigger broader issues were kind of the focus um at the capital. What did happen for the uh paid leave is that the premium rate cap got reduced
from 1.2% to 1.1%. But right now the the total rate is88%. Uh previously it been initially estimated I think.77. So there's not going to be an impact on your county budget there. It's just saying that it can't go higher than 1.1.
Um but we're at 088 right now. on earn sick and safe time. There were some kind of really small changes, really small changes that were made kind of thrown into the deal the Friday before special session. Um, and this was changing uh the notice requirements for employers uh
for for employees to uh as reasonably required by the employer instead of as soon as practicable. It's difficult to say exactly what that difference will be, but I think it's makes a little bit more sense. Um and then the other so
under previous law the notice requirement for employees that they were going to use earn sick and safe time was as soon as practicable as soon as and now the law is as reasonably required by the employer. As reasonably required. Okay. So yeah, um the other change that
was made the uh under previous law or prior to enactment, if you were if you're an employee taking more than two days of earned sick and safe time, you had to provide some type of medical document or or sorry, more than 3 days previously. If it was more than 3 days previously, you had to provide some type
of documentation. And now that's changed to more than two days. So before you could use you could have 3 days of ESST without providing any documentation uh consecutively and now that's just two. So those are pretty minor changes but
those did go into law. Um a couple other quick things. Uh in 2023 the legislature changed the absentee ballot drop off deadline from 3 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. This year uh they moved that uh back to 5:00
p.m. Uh the Thank you. Yeah, we did. This is one of the things we push mostly on election issues to be honest with you. We we defer to Mako on Minnesota Association of County Officers. This is one area where we did try to help out and and move this deadline just because there
are a lot of counties that we've just been hearing from that like, hey, we think it would be helpful even if we don't get all the way back to 3 p.m. to go to 5:00 p.m. Um, on the open meeting laws, uh the change allows remote participation for uh public meetings from uh to a location that's not open
and accessible to the public. Uh so previously uh participating remotely from a location that's not open and accessible have been limited to three times a year just for medical or military purposes. Um and the capital replacement account, this is some an example of something that didn't happen,
but there had been a proposal floating out there for a couple of years of requiring local governments to set aside enough money to replace a building by the time they were coming to the legislature to ask for help in building that building. We didn't think that made a lot of sense. We did work with a house
author um from Shakipi that that changed that to requiring just a plan to maintain and preserve the building. But even that didn't end up becoming law. So we can go to the next slide. I did want to talk about pensions a little bit. Pensions is one of the rare
committees that got a positive revenue target of 80 million this banium and 80 million the next banium. Um, so that included uh that money was largely paying for uh teachers and police and fire cola increases uh for police and
fire going from 1% to 1.25% including a one-time bump as well that's kind of built into the base. Um there's also a change for parah paracola increase uh for those general plan employees that didn't uh require a
general fund component. the um the actuaries kind of said, "Hey, this is something that the plan can support on its own." You couldn't do that with police and fire because it's currently one of the least stable, least wellunded plans. Um and related to that, there was also a change to the duty disability or
PTSD uh law. And the uh you know, the one-time money that the legislature had set aside in 2023 after they saw a lot of these cases spike in 2020 um had started to run out. So basically the the change is that instead of these health
insurance benefits being guaranteed to age 65, they're guaranteed for five years. But I should say this is just prospective moving forward. If you're already getting that health insurance benefit, you're still guaranteed to 65. Um and yeah, so that is pensions. Oh,
one more thing on pensions. There was a lot of discussion about uh probation officers and they're creating a separate separate differential pension plan for them at the legislature this year. Other uh parah and others raised a couple issues with that. What they ended up doing was creating a working group to
say like hey let's create this working group where we have public employers and public employees and make recommendations on how we want to treat these pension plans for um 911 telecommunicators and probation officers moving forward. That report is due to the legislature in January and I think
they're going to meet in the next for the first time in the next week or two. Um, any questions on either anything there? All right, I think we can go to the next one which Okay, just wanted to wrap up just talking about our policy process a little bit. It's going to be starting in
August uh and run through uh December basically, but we're going to have our board kind of set their highle priorities. What should we be thinking about? What should we be talking about the legislature? And then we have the policy committees with county staff kind of try to move some of those forward and
bring other issues that they're hearing from their county to see, hey, are we hearing this in other counties? What kind of statewide policy solutions do we want to look at? Um, so those uh drafts are reviewed by the board and by the county administrators as they move along. And that's kind of our guide
guiding light at the legislature, that legislative document. we can and do work on other issues outside of it if they're statewide and they affect counties, but I did just want to talk about that a little bit just so you're aware of it. And I think we can go to the next slide, which I believe is the last one. So, uh,
this is just contact information, but I think a natural question and it's already kind of come up is like, well, what's next? Um, you know, on the the spectre of a possible special session is out there. Um, you know, the state did end this budget session with a $ 1.9
about billion dollar surplus. They cut spending in the outb about $1.8 billion. Um, so we're in better fiscal shape than we were at the be from a state perspective at the beginning of session, but we still have revenues coming in
lower than spending. Um, and then there is kind of the question of, you know, what's going to happen with the federal bill, right? whether it's uh Medicaid or SNAP. Um it's it's really difficult to answer that question. Um and Micah, to be clear, doesn't lobby on federal issues. Um but it is something that we
monitor to try to keep pace with and uh answer any questions that come up. Um it's so I I you know, I don't think a special session is guaranteed necessarily, but it's certainly possible. And like it's been mentioned before, there are a lot of different political dynamics around that. And just
the reason I mentioned that is because I do think that, you know, I I know that sometimes it's hard to see the absence of a negative as a positive. Um this year at the legislature, it was like a lot of we were able to get some wins by avoiding cuts, right? I mean, that's really the story of this session, but
it's not guaranteed that we'll be able to do that every time, right? Um this year we're able to do it. I mean, looking at taxes, looking at HHS in other areas, I think, you know, are there still some cuts and cost shifts in there that they passed? Yes, absolutely. Um, but it's the the state fiscal
picture is not like it's solved and we're I mean, we're going to be talking about this next year and the year after that, just to be totally frank, is my my assessment of the situation from a budget perspective. So, yeah, that's happy to answer any questions. Is that the end of the presentation? Yes. Okay.
The reason I'm asking is I'm going to I'm going to make a bit of a jump and this is um and I want to do this since we have Micah staff here. Commissioner Ward, if you're willing, I'm sorry I didn't give you a heads up about this. You and I had a phone conversation last week after the shooting of um Senator
Huffman and Speaker Hortman. Um I was going to ask you at the end if you could just repeat what you shared with me. Um and then if it's Yeah. Marine put it. So that that was from you. Yes. Okay. Yes. Because then what I was also going to ask for um was like a moment of silence.
I don't mean like 10 minutes. I mean like 15 seconds. Sure. because I know all of you work with those people. Um my son works um in in the state senate. Uh he's on the uh the Senate K12 policy committee. He works under Senator
Swaziski, etc. Um so he works very closely with Senator Hoffman, but I know a lot of you work with both Senator Hoffman and especially uh Melissa Hortman. So if it's okay, Commissioner Ward. Sure. If if could we just take 10 seconds for a moment of silence to honor
the honor what happened in St. Paul, because it has impacted, I think, every elected official across the state. It's freaked my wife out. It's freaked people all across the political spectrum. And this is this is not a partisan issue. There's plenty of crazies all over the
place, etc. Sure. Sure. We can take Yes, we did put out a word uh um Miss Holty put it on our website and the the loss of uh the the Hortman family and then the the H the devastation to the Hoffman family. So, yeah, let's uh let's take a 10-second uh remembrance of those
elected and families. Thank you. Thank you for allowing that. Thank you for the work you guys do up in St. Paul. It's important work. And I just want to say uh I think your use of uh MCIT building is a sound thing. Um, I am on the MCT board and we we did say
that we wanted you to use that facility and so, uh, uh, good. I think it works great for us for a space. So, we're we're very improvement in the technology. What we got to do though is get Mayor Carter to fix Jackson Street.
You're telling me I I live near there. Get Mayor Carter to fix that street. It's one of the worst streets. You leave the cap, you come up to to go to That's what I used to go to MCIT and it Yeah. If we would have taken that on a road tour, it would have been a Yeah. devastation. So, but no, thank you for
using our facility there and it just makes sense to use it. Yeah. Good. Thank you. Thank you, M. Thanks, members. Thank you. Safe travels going back. I'm assuming you're going back tonight. It's daylight, so yeah, be careful. There's a lot of uh critters on the road. Um and
uh be safe. All right. Our last item, 7.2, is to discuss and or appoint citizen advisory committee. And that was a person applying for our extension committee. Reappoint, isn't it? No, it's a new new.
Oh, I apologize. Yeah, it's new. I I I don't know the person, but it looked like uh the resume. He had a lot of good uh experiences. I don't know him, but he was in project science when my husband was teaching. Oh. At the middle school. Really? I don't. He and his brother
both. Okay. All right. So, do we have a motion to approve? So, moved. I'll second. Okay, we have a motion by Commissioner Olsson, second by Commissioner Meyer to appoint Jonas from Bennetta, believe to our extension committee. Any further discussion? All those in favor
say I. I oppose. Nay. Okay, we're He is approved. And I think that may fill that. Well, there might still be one. I'm not We'll have to check. No, there was only one vacancy. There was one vacancy. So, that would fill that that committee, I think. Do uh do we have any vacancies on any of our committees? And
I know that's on the website, so I I should look there to see. Yeah, I'm not sure. Okay, we need any more citizen volunteers. All right. Uh, Commissioner Vaguely, you had some. Thank you for allowing that moment of silence for Speaker Hortman. And the She'll be lying in state. Is it on Friday, etc. Um, uh,
since we last met, it was Father's Day. So, I just wanted to say happy Father's Day to all the fathers here in this room and out in Winona County. Also, last night, uh, Commissioner and Ward and I and Ross, was there 19 other people? I
think no, 17. Yeah. All but two of the, uh, people that we had appointed were able to make the the comp plan meeting. And it's probably going to be impossible to find a time when 21 people can meet. Um, it was a long meeting, lots of information. Um, I'm looking forward to
those discussions. Um, people are not holding back, which is wonderful. Um there is a room full of different views as it should be. This is not North Korea. We should have a wide range of views and I got an earful already. Um so that's a good sign that people are going to be having conversations. So I'm
looking forward the next meeting wasn't set. No, we did not. That'll be hopefully I think in two months or so roughly. Um and that's it for me. Thank you. Okay. Commissioner Elling. Uh just a couple things. Uh something that keeps coming up is the new rifle law. Uh, have
you heard anything with this yet? Rifle. Yeah. I was I was talked to at the township officers meeting about that. Yeah. So, uh, and just I think it's going to come to some point where each county board has to decide whether that's applicable. So, I've had some different constituents before me. Looks
like somebody I can just I can confirm that. Yes. So, they did repeal the statewide uh shotgun zone, but each county board is able to um have their own set their own standard there. Yep. Yep. So, I do believe that's going to come to some point to the board and um I
you know, so I've had some people reach out to us about that and just the pros and the cons and different things like that. So, um just give some thought into that. And I apologize, Commissioner. And and as long as Mike is here, do we wait for it to come to us or does the county board initiate this process because the
person the township officer who was talking I think from Hart Township, he was asking me when will the county do something and I wasn't sure. Does the county initiate it or do we wait or do you know, Commissioner Nelson? I I believe that you have to initiate it. I don't think the state is going to do
anything. They're just there repealing the statewide shotgun zone and so it's up to each individual county board what they want to do. So are you requesting at some point? So we So yeah, it's it's you know basically it's repealed. So you know I've had some people ask is there
any concern about undoing the repeal basically. So and I mean for the most part everybody's in favor of it just because of the deer population and things like that. The whole idea is it's getting out of hand and they need more opportunity to to eliminate some of these problems especially with CWD and
stuff like that. So, um I just didn't know anybody else heard any who would bring something. I'm not a gun toteen. Did you want anything? No, I just uh No, I I wasn't 100% sure of the process either and what we had to do and if we
had to do anything. So, I just wanted the share. Yeah. Yeah. Can I So to clarify that there were zones where you couldn't use a rifle. You could only use a shotgun. Correct. And now you can use a rifle anywhere up anywhere. Skip. Yeah. Rifle and shotgun. Uh Madam Chair, Commissioners, if it would be helpful, I
could send I could follow up and send the the specific language that was included in the environment bill that both the the repealer and then the I believe there's two other sections in the bill around kind of what rights counties have now. Um and so if that's helpful, I can send that right away.
Yep. Okay. Because the way it stands now after the repeal is that that stands for this fall already. Do you I I don't remember the effective date off the top of my head of that repealer. So I that would be included in the follow-up. Yeah. And especially with with the way things are now and the way um that it I
believe the intent behind it was because we there's such a population problem and they're trying to control this problem to protect the animals and everything else. So yeah. All right. That'd be that'd be helpful. Wonderful. Yeah. Thank you. Anything else? Um, I just want to remind everybody the fair is coming up. So, uh, you're going to hear
me say that until after the fair. So, yes, the great great Winona County get together, Winona County Fair, July 9th through the 13th. Um, and we will not meet again before we have our great independence day, July 4th. So, just everybody be safe and be happy and and
have fun. Um, and we approved our first marijuana growing operation tonight in Winona County. Um, so lots is happening. Uh, thank you Micah for coming down all the good information and everything. Uh, keep up the good work. Uh, any other business to
come before the county? Motion to adjurnn. I'll second. We have a motion by Commissioner Eling, second by Commissioner Meyer to adjurnn. All those in favor say I. Oppos? Nay. We are journ. Thank you.