The walleye-based economy around Lake Mille Lacs is “hurting,” a county leader told lawmakers earlier this week as they discussed a $30 million financial aid proposal.

“We’re hurting,” Mille Lacs County Commissioner David Oslin told a House committee Tuesday. “We’ve dropped over $26 million in property value.”

Some resorts have seen occupancy drop by 60 percent in the last few years, said Karen McQuoid, a member of the Mille Lacs Area Tourism Council.

A major reason, according to Oslin and McQuoid: Troubles surrounding the lake’s fabled walleye fishery, and the state’s response.

The walleye population has been in decline for years, but last summer, things came to a head when the state exceeded its share of a controversial quota between it and Chippewa bands with treaty rights to the fish. The state closed walleye fishing — an unprecedented step.

On Monday, the Department of Natural Resources announced that in order to protect the walleye population this summer, all walleyes caught must be released immediately and no live bait can be used to target them. It’s an astonishing step for a lake that was capable of yielding a bounty of 360,000 pounds of walleyes as recently as 2012 — and a troubling development for an economy that is centered on providing a cooler full of walleye fillets for anglers.

Oslin was trying to persuade lawmakers to support an economic relief program that could cost taxpayers $10 million annually for three years, starting in 2017. The plan includes grants, $100,000 forgivable loans, and up to three-year breaks from paying property taxes for businesses in Mille Lacs, Crow Wing and Aitkin counties, as well as money to promote tourism in the area.

On Thursday, Gov. Mark Dayton said he supports the plan, which is sponsored by state Rep. Sondra Erickson, R-Princeton.

After last summer’s shutdown of the walleye fishery, Dayton and Erickson tried to convene a special session of the Legislature to bring similar types of relief to businesses around the massive central Minnesota lake, but the initiative faltered.

The current plan, however, appears to be broader than the previous ideas — going well beyond the resorts, restaurants and bait shops on the lake — and is not without criticism.

For example, the proposal covers businesses in an array of sectors within 15 miles of the lake that have suffered any loss of business since 2010.

“Why are we allowing someone who’s had a quarter percent reduction in their gross receipts to apply for $100,00 low-interest loan that all of us pay for?” asked Rep. Barb Yarusso, DFL-Shoreview.

The plan was approved by the Mining and Outdoor Recreation Policy Committee and is expected to be taken up by another committee.