Digging into the Governor’s climate budget
This is part of “Climate in All Budgets,” a new blog series by 100% Campaign Managing and Research Director, Dr. Kate Knuth
100% clean energy by 2040 is now Minnesota law. That means 2023 is on track to be the biggest year for climate action that Minnesota has ever seen. And with the release of the state’s budget forecast earlier this week – showing a continuing $17.5 billion surplus – we’re moving fast into the budget-writing phase of our state legislative session. The next opportunity to go big is passing a bold climate action budget.
What does bold look like? It looks like investing in climate action across state government and going big on the investments that matter most for decarbonization, climate resilience, and racial equity.
One of the most important documents shaping Minnesota’s budget conversation is Governor Walz and Lt. Governor Flanagan’s budget recommendations.
Here are the three big takeaways from how climate shows up in the governor’s budget. First, the budget builds on climate leadership from the Walz/Flanagan administration’s first term. Second, climate shows up across the budget in big and small ways. Finally, the climate investments show that the Walz/Flanagan administration is considering both climate and equity in budget development.
Let’s dig into each takeaway.
Building on four years of climate leadership
To better understand how climate action weaves through the Walz/Flanagan 2024-25 budget recommendations, let’s review a little history of the administration’s first term.
Back in 2019, Governor Walz signed Executive Order 19-37, which focused agencies across the administration on leveling up climate action and created a Climate Change Subcabinet and Governor’s Advisory Council on Climate Change. These groups – along with many other folks – created Minnesota’s Climate Action Framework, released in fall 2022. The Framework is Minnesota’s plan to address and prepare for climate change.
In short, the climate investments in the governor’s budget have some major substance behind them, years of agency planning and public engagement.
Climate action across the state budget
One of the cool things about the governor’s budget recommendations is that climate action shows up in a bunch of places, and not just the expected ones.
The list is too long to go in-depth, but here are some surprising spots where Governor Walz recommends making climate investments:
Department of Commerce: Commerce is a place we expect to see some big climate investments because it’s the home of Minnesota’s Energy Office. Here, Walz recommends, among other items, $61.5 million for solar on schools and nearly $25 million for pre-weatherization and weatherization workforce training. However, there’s also an unexpected proposal from the Department of Commerce’s Insurance Division. It’s called the Strengthen Minnesota Homes and it’s a program to help Minnesotans make their homes resilient to weather extremes driven by climate change, ultimately reducing the costs of homeowners and property insurance.
Transportation: As Minnesota’s biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions, big investments in the transportation sector are needed. Two big examples of climate investments in the Walz/Flanagan budget include $72 million for building out bus rapid transit and $29.2 million for bus electrification. Plus, there is another $13 million to match federal investments in electric vehicle charging infrastructure. Let’s go!
Environment and Agriculture: The governor’s budget includes a whole bunch of climate investments moving through the Department of Natural Resources and the Board of Water and Soil Resources, like planting more trees, both in state forests and in communities. The agriculture budget includes investments in soil health practices and in a staff position in the Department of Agriculture to better coordinate climate work there.
Digging deeper - considering climate and equity benefits
Another surprise (and a great one!) was the governor’s proposal for Resilient Communities Grants and Technical assistance. You can find the program description in the Pollution Control Agency’s budget.
First of all, the recommended funding for this program is $173.9 million over two years.
It’s clear that the size of this funding comes out of needs identified in the climate action framework and major oversubscription of a similar grant program funded two years ago. In other words, local governments are already feeling the impacts of climate change. And they need help to plan for and implement climate actions to make our communities more resilient.
If you read the recommendation narratives, the Resilient Communities proposal (like all the proposals) is organized to address how this proposed program funding intersects with three big things - families and children, diversity and inclusion, and tribal consultation. So, what does that really mean? It means that the agencies were directed to consider how the state budget impacts some of the most impacted folks in our communities.
From a resilient communities perspective, this focus is especially important. In order to build true climate resilience, we need to intentionally prioritize investments in communities that have been underinvested in for decades.
This may be (for sure is) the policy nerd in me, but I think it is very cool to see this equity lens deep in the details of the governor’s budget recommendations.
Thanks for coming along on this climate budgets journey. The governor’s budget is just the beginning! In the coming weeks, we’ll go deeper on specific budget areas. Stay tuned.
