SCOTT RALL

The Globe outdoors columnist

I have spent many hours each year following the workings of the Minnesota Legislature when it comes to wildlife and natural resource issues, for at least the past 20 years. There is no doubt that when it comes to the management of game and fish that the Minnesota DNR gets a lot of their marching orders from the politicians of this state.

That is a big problem about 99 percent of the time.

I figured that after last year when the Minnesota Republicans had the majority in both the House and the Senate and then tried to kill the legacy of public lands in Minnesota -- and subsequently were beaten back by thousands of hunters and anglers -- that they would have smartened up this year. But so sadly, this is not the case.

There are two very sad events, one I will cover this week and the other next week, that are a result of the majority party not learning its lessons.

The first is the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund. This is the fund that gets some of the proceeds from the sale of Minnesota lottery tickets.

This year they had $42 million to distribute for good projects designed to protect and enhance our natural resources.

The trust fund was created with the understanding that the profits derived from the sale of lottery tickets would benefit the environment. Have you ever heard the loon call during a Minnesota Lottery advertisement on the radio?

This year the misguided politicians decided to set a bad faith precedent regarding the fund. They determined that about $8 million a year should now come out to fund for the construction of and upgrades to waste water treatment plants for cities with a population under 5,000 residents.

They claim that this will benefit clean water in the state and thus would qualify as bettering the natural resources of the state. When they made this move, they put in statute that this raid of the Trust Fund would continue for the next 20 years.

So, let’s look at all the things wrong with the idiocy of this idea. First is the fact that there is a special clean water fund that was set up as part of the Land and Legacy amendment in 2009. They get about 100 million a year just like the Outdoor Heritage Fund gets to do wildlife work. Why in the world would you need to raid the lottery trust fund when other dollars are there for exactly this purpose?

Two, how can any Legislature commit the next 20 years of future legislators to spend money that they had no voice in deciding? This has never been done, to my knowledge, in any past money business at the state capital.

Third, but certainly just as important as reasons one and two, is the fact that these projects have almost always been funded by bonding which the state usually takes up every other year.

There was approximately $850,000,000 in proposed bonding requests. Governor Dayton wanted about $5 billion in his request. I don’t know if the bonding bill passed this session. I know it was killed in the last days of last year’s session.

These are traditional sources of funding for all sorts of Minnesota’s wants and needs. We need to stick to those formulas.

The Trust Fund committee that makes the funding recommendation has eight House members, eight Senate members and six rank-and-file citizens who work all year long to hear the requests and make recommendations. It is an exhaustive process.

For the politicians who think they know better, remember they have an election certificate to circumvent the normal bonding process and raid the environmental trust funds designated in a dedicated fund for natural resources, and re-direct those funds to pay for the infrastructure that Minnesota needs. It is a travesty. In order to make the commitment to redirect these funds, they reduced some projects and killed a few others outright.

Dedicated funds mean dedicated funds. You can make a case for just about anything if you forget what the intentions of a dedicated fund are.

Voters who passed the lottery to benefit our natural resources are being betrayed by this move. It makes me a little scared that if they can pull this off what they might do to the dedicated funds from the Outdoor Heritage Fund. If they can steal from one dedicated fund, can they steal from all?

Waste water treatment plants funded with wildlife money, does that sound exactly right to you? It truly is a sad day for Minnesota sportsmen and women and anyone else who cares about our natural resources.