Hauschild, Zeleznikar and Skraba Hold Town Hall in Two Harbors

Last Saturday’s town hall meet­ing at Two Harbors High School was well attended by residents from across Lake County. Topics up for discussion were varied and covered many issues important to North Shore residents.

First up for discussion was the Governor’s revised budget which could bring some cost shifts to counties across the state. The Gov­ernor has proposed a reduction in PILT funding (Payment In Lieu Of Taxes), which will disproportion­ately affect rural counties and could bring about a levy increase of up to 30%. Senator Hauschild respond­ed to this question by saying that he has called out the Governor on this issue and has asked the Gover­nor to refrain from targeting North­ern Minnesota with these cuts? Hauschild stressed that if cuts are necessary, they should be spread out across the state, including the Twin Cities and the state’s southern counties so that no one region bears the burden alone. Hauschild serves on the Senate Tax Committee and said that Senators will not support PILT reductions. Representative Zeleznikar commented that legis­lators worked hard two years ago to bring about an increase in PILT funding “because of all the land in our area that is not taxable.” She stated that the Governor’s plan is detrimental to Two Harbors and the entire northern part of the state. She acknowledged that the shift will bring an increase in property taxes for Lake County residents “and that can not happen.” Representative Skraba stated that, regarding this is­sue, “You don’t have to be a repub­lican or a democrat, you just have to be from North Eastern Minnesota.” He agreed point by point with Haus­child’s response to the question. Sk­raba pointed out that, in Northern Minnesota, public lands next to wa­ter are worth $4 an acre while in the southern part of the state, similar land is worth $40 an acre. He has advocated that the state give plac­es like Lake County an amount that is commensurate with the value of our public lands and he has backed a bill to increase PILT funds. This issue is still under negotiation and all three legislators are working to encourage the Governor to devise a better plan.

The layoffs of 600 Iron Range miners was another issue of con­cern. All three legislators agree that unemployment benefits need to be extended for these workers. “We need to have a bridge to a fu­ture” for the Iron Range, Zeleznikar stated. The future wellbeing of the Range is tied directly to Silver Bay and Northern counties because it is so important to our regional econo­my. All three agree that there need to be long term solutions beyond extended unemployment benefits for Range employees. Additionally, all three indicated that they will not vote to shut down the Keetac Mine in spite of the understanding that Keetac is not currently able to bring their sulfate standard down to the 10 parts per million range that will meet with current environmental requirements. Hauschild acknowl­edged the importance of meeting environmental standards by work­ing with research institutions with­out throwing away the hundreds of jobs that are essential for the eco­nomic vitality of the region.

Cuts to federal agencies and fed­eral funding will obviously affect all of us and this issue was raised on Saturday. The fact that Pete Stauber has refused to meet with his constit­uents was brought up as well. Rep­resentative Skraba said that he had spoken to Stauber’s staff, who are “monitoring” the situation. Skraba acknowledged that while cuts have been made, “no one has felt them yet.” He indicated that the State legislature may be called into spe­cial session this Fall after it can be determined how Federal cuts will affect Minnesota residents. Skraba said that State Legislator’s voic­es do carry weight in Washington and that legislators at the State lev­el will look into what they can do to mitigate the pain imposed from DC. Representative Zeleznikar told the crowd that she had met with the Commissioner of Health and was told that many of the expected health care cuts come from 2020 Covid related dollars which were expected to run out. Zeleznikar was told that the base funding for the grants would be sustained and that cuts would come from grants that were specifically pandemic relat­ed. The question this raises is, are healthcare cuts simply limited to one time grant funding or will cuts include base funding as well? Be­cause DOGE actions are fairly re­cent and seem to change from day to day, the answer to that question seems murky. Hauschild got a strong response from the crowd when he acknowledged the importance in calling out both parties when they are wrong. He said that he was pushing back against the President regarding cuts to Medicaid, the VA, Social Security and other agencies targeted by DOGE. “If you think that over a billion dollars in Medic­aid cuts are going to not harm rural communities like ours most, you’re foolish,” he said. “Rural hospitals, rural nursing homes and the VA will be the places impacted the most.” Hauschild stated that he has written to the President and to Representa­tive Stauber and he recently went to Washington to meet with each of Minnesota’s legislators. Stauber was the only one of the three who wouldn’t meet with him.

There were a number of other sa­lient issues that came up at Satur­day’s town hall meeting. Legislators spoke about the need to keep zoning de­cisions under local municipal con­trol and there was some talk about ways to diversify our economy for the future. Kitty Mayo of the Lake County Press served as moderator for the event and the general vibe was fairly positive. There were a few occasions where partisan di­vides were evident, but there were also considerable issues where Sk­raba, Zeleznikar and Hauschild seem to have a shared vision and commitment regarding their service as representatives of North Shore communities.