Lobbyists for pest control companies, golf courses and landscapers have mounted a full-scale assault on a bill that would delegate some pesticide regulation to cities, fearing the prying eyes of overzealous urban regulators.
The provision's backers say it's a harmless effort to help the Department of Agriculture dump costly enforcement on cities that can afford to do it themselves.
In a letter this week to the Minnesota House, a coalition of 16 organizations asked lawmakers to vote down an omnibus agriculture policy bill because it includes a provision that would let four local governments — Minneapolis, St. Paul, Rochester and Duluth — enforce rules on the use and disposal of pesticides.
The group said that could "create a crazy-quilt" of rules and "erect burdensome regulatory hurdles for future generations."
State law pre-empts local governments from making their own pesticide regulations, but it does already allow the state agriculture commissioner to delegate pesticide regulatory authority to "approved agencies," including municipalities.
That delegation hasn't happened, said Rep. Rick Hansen, DFL-South St. Paul. He crafted a compromise measure that would merely set out the terms for the Department of Agriculture to delegate regulatory enforcement. The point of the law change, he said, is to clarify that the Department of Agriculture can make agreements with the state's four biggest cities so the cities can take on the task of pesticide regulation. It won't allow cities to make their own rules on pesticides.
"We felt that the largest four cities have the capacity to do that work," Hansen said. "The law change being proposed does not provide additional authority. It's not saying, 'Minneapolis, St. Paul, Duluth or Rochester, go hog wild.' "
But after a bruising election in 2018 that saw Republican allies take heavy losses in the Minnesota House, industries are wary of anything that looks like more regulation.
