Legislators meet the voters at Land Use Expo

Questions related to helping the family farm and why the legislature failed to deal with taxes, bonding and transportation issues dominated a panel discussion with area legislators at last week’s Land Use Expo. Rep. Peggy Bennett (R-27A), Rep. Jeanne Poppe (DFL-27B), Sen. Vicki Jensen (DFL-24), Rebecca Flood, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, Sen. Dan Sparks (DFL-27), Sen. Dave Senjem (R-25) and Rod Hamilton, (R- 22) participated in the discussion. Discussions started with a question about a so-called “Zombie Bill” that allows a lien to be put on a farm estate if the property owner has gone to a nursing home. In the past, said Andrew Vermilyea, who asked the original question, it was that if a property was put into a life estate it was not tied to real estate after a certain period of time had passed. None of the legislators on the panel said they had heard of such a law but agreed that it would affect the ability of a farm to be passed down through the generations.