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Minnesota Farm Bureau calls Governor “bully”

 

Political bullying is how the public policy advisor for Minnesota Farm Bureau describes Governor Mark Dayton’s mandatory 50-foot buffer proposal.

Doug Busselman tells Brownfield those tactics even go beyond the governor, “Not just by the governor, but by the agencies who have been involved as well.”  Busselman says Dayton has used some very inappropriate tactics to try to bully his way (and the government’s) through.

He accuses the governor of wrongly questioning the integrity of agricultural producers and disagrees with Dayton’s approach, saying he’s tried to divide and separate different types of producers.  “It’s basically been a political bullying effort to take a square peg and try to get it in a round hole and just use a bigger hammer.”

Minnesota Farm Bureau supports the current state buffer law of a 16 ½-foot buffer for public drainage ditches.  Busselman says there is a re-determination of benefits and as part of that process, a right-of-way is applied.  The landowner is then compensated through assessments to the others who are gaining advantage through the determination of benefits.

There are also local ordinances in various counties across the state that Farm Bureau supports, because Busselman says they are determined by local government based on the needs of their specific area.