Financial Help for ONE Minnesota Resort Owner
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Only one of the dozens of businesses impacted by fishing restrictions on an eastern Minnesota lake is getting financial help from the state thanks to language tucked into an economic development law.
The Star Tribune reports the law's language is so specific that only Hunter's Winfield Resort on Mille Lacs Lake will receive $150,000 in aid.
Many businesses in the area have suffered because of walleye restrictions imposed by the Department of Natural Resources. Republican Rep. Sondra Erickson says the law was a small way to help a business in her district.
But the department's commissioner, Tom Landwehr, worries that the law will set a precedent for the state to help all businesses negatively impacted by decisions the department makes to sustain or protect wildlife or the environment.