ST. PAUL — There has been heavy action in the Minnesota legislature the past couple of days, with decisions on a number of items affecting southwestern Minnesota.

THE FORTUNES of headline legislation coming out of the 1975 session included: The drainage and public waters bill never came up for a vote.

St. Peter State Hospital survived a threat to shut it down.

Weather modification was sheltered by its authors to live until 1976.

Aid to non-public schools passed but may face trouble in the courts.

$173,000 to complete the Department of Natural Resources at New Ulm made a successful comeback in the final days.

The well-debated corporate farm bill just got in under the wire.

The New Ulm Fire Department pension bill won approval, which will mean higher benefits for the volunteers.

THIS WAS the headline legislation that came out of the 1975 legislature with special interest to southwestern Minnesota.

All major appropriations bills, except one, were approved by midnight Monday, constitutional deadline for passing legislation. The exception was the semi-state budget of about $10 million.

The House passed the measure Monday night, but time ran out before it came up for a vote in the Senate.

REP. A. J. ECKSTEIN, DFL-New Ulm, was chairman of the conference committee on this bill. He thought he had it compromised between Senate and House versions last Monday but saw it shot down by his own House a couple days later.

Then a second revision was too late for the Senate.

“It’s no bill,” said a disappointed Eckstein.

Sen. Earl Renneke, GOP-Gaylord, had a little different idea. “I think there’ll be enough money in the contingency fund to run semi-state until we meet again next January.

Principal beneficiary of the semi-state budget is the Minnesota Historical Society,which has a $50,000 project for the restoration of the Massopust-Harkin Store northwest of New Ulm and a $25,000 study of restoration of buildings at Ft. Ridgely.

Robert Herbst, commissioner of the DNR, walked the halls of the Capitol with a big smile following passage of the state department’s bill.

“I’m very happy,” he said. “I got nearly all my construction projects, including the New Ulm building for the Southwest headquarters, plus some new positions.”

SINGING THE blues was Frank Marzitelli, commissioner of the Minnesota Highway Department, who had plugged for roads and bridges in outstate Minnesota.

Both Houses passed the highway funding bill minus a $50 million bonding feature for bridge repair and construction.

It did include the two cents a gallon gasoline tax increase.

“We will be about $45 million short in the biennium said Marzitelli. “They took out the bridge bonds and the raise in license fees. The two cents a gallon will just enable us to match federal funds. We have to do something for 3,600 decaying bridges,so it looks like I’ll be back in ’76 for more funds.”

A BILL that will add funds and work for the state’s 26 mental health centers, including Sioux Trails at New Ulm, passed with a $7.3 million appropriation. It calls for helping persons with chemical dependency problems, including alcohol, get treatment from private or state facilities.

A corporate farm bill, authored by Rep. Russ Stanton, DFL-Arco, won popular support as legislators went for the idea of keeping Minnesota’s fertile acres for the men who work the soil.

It defined three classifications of corporate farms: 1) a family business with stock held by the family; 2) Anon-family corporation with a maximum of five stockholders, three of whom must work on the farm 3) a Conglomerate corporation.New ones will no longer be permitted. Current ones can continue but growth is limited to 4 per cent a year.

STANTON ALSO pushed through legislation that provides from $3 million to $4.2 million for mass transit in cities outside the metropolitan area. This includes taxi cabs and bus lines.

New Ulm Daily Journal

May 20, 1975