Funding questions remain for local soil and water district

The Cook County Soil and Water Conservation District Board and staff continue to seek answers regarding state funding in 2019.

For many years the state has provided Minnesota’s 88 Soil and Water Conservation Districts with funding through the Clean Water Fund. In 2018, for example, $11 million was allocated to SWCDs through this funding source.

Meanwhile, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and his administration’s 2019 budget called for removing these capacity funds to SWCDs in the state, including Cook County. Included in the budget proposal, however, is the potential for SWCDs to authorize levy authority, meaning they could collect funds directly from local taxpayers in a fashion similar to the local hospital and how it utilizes levy authority.

WTIP’s Joe Friedrichs spoke with Joan Farnam, the chair of the Cook County SWCD, about the funding situation in 2019.