Did you know the state has a Board of Innovation and Cooperation? Probably not, because the board has been inactive for six or seven years. Considering the dire economy and the state's massive budget hole, now is a good time to bring it back, said Rep. Bill Hilty of Finlayson, our choice in House District 8A, which encompasses most of Carlton County and northern Pine County.
"That board had the power, basically, to grant exemptions and waivers to some rules and regulations over the interaction of government units," Hilty said in an interview with the News Tribune editorial board.
In other words, the board can assist local units of government in working more cooperatively, sharing services and reducing redundancy, all in the name of stretching already stretched-thin budgets and saving taxpayers' money. Who wouldn't want to encourage that?
"We want to be able to say to local governments, 'OK, you can go ahead and try things,' " said Hilty, a lawmaker for 14 years and a former maker of bedroom furniture. "Does every small community, for instance, have to have a fully equipped fire department? Why does the county snowplow and the state snowplow and other snowplows all have to go down the same roads?
"We have such a dire situation in this state and all the budget questions. It's a time that experience and an understanding of how things work is going to make a big difference," he said. "I think I'm perhaps more poised to bite the bullet and make hard decisions than maybe a new person would be."
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Hilty's niche in St. Paul has been in energy issues, with successes that can be credited, at least in part, to a willingness to reach across the aisle.
The DFLer is co-
chairman, with a Republican, of a joint House-Senate legislative energy commission, which is taking a fresh, consumer-focused look at the Public Utilities Commission. "What's good for our energy future? ... We'd like them to be thinking of the next 20 or 30 years," Hilty said.
As chairman of the House energy policy and finance division, Hilty passed an energy standard requiring 25 percent renewable sources of energy statewide by 2025. The commitment is helping Minnesota do its part to shed the nation of its oil addiction.
Expect Hilty's focus to remain where it belongs, on assuring a sustainable future. "We have to be thinking longer than the next budget cycle," he told the editorial board in 2008.
Never has that been more true than in 2010.
Hilty's Republican challenger is Mark Ames of Sturgeon Lake, a sign language interpreter who runs an organic apple orchard.
"The number-one issue is the economy," Ames said. "The state is spending money it doesn't have. You can't do that. It's not sustainable."
