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Farmers tired of waiting for drought relief aid

While front line workers and business owners inMinnesota can express a sigh of relief, farmers are still waiting.

On Friday, Gov. Tim Walz signed into law legislation providing direct payments to frontline workers and replenishing the unemployment trust fund, providing tax relief for small businesses. Meanwhile, negotiations between the two houses of the Legislature continue over the drought relief package.

The hangup is over DNR funding proposed in a House version of the bill for seedlings and shade trees lost in the drought. The other part of the relief package is $10 million in aid for financial assistance for farmers. The Democrats see the tree funding as necessary to help public resources hurt by the drought.

The governor’s agriculture commissioner, Thom Peterson, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that “it seemed like a natural fit to put those things together.”

Meanwhile, the Senate version doesn’t include funding for trees and is more agriculture orientated. Republicans argue that money for the DNR and others is unrelated to agriculture needs more scrutiny. Republicans also say the funding for trees can be negotiated as part of a broader budget deal rather than fast-tracked like the money for farmers.

Last March Rep. Chris Swedzinski, R-Ghent, received some criticism after his “no” vote for the House bill. But he argued that combining the DNR funding with agriculture needs “doesn’t make sense.”

We have to agree with Swedzinski. Combining agriculture aid relief with DNR needs doesn’t make sense. In fact, we are surprised that the state’s agriculture commissioner would suggest otherwise.

Apparently Peterson and the DFL fail to realize the urgency of the situation. Some farmers lost a year’s worth of income because of last year’s drought.

Last Thursday, Rep. Mike Sundin, DFL-Esko, chair of the House Agriculture Committee, told the Star Tribune that he thought both sides were “close” on a deal that would aid “ag producers in Minnesota, large and small.”

Hopefully, Sundin is correct in his assessment. Planting season is fast approaching and farmers are tired of waiting.

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