On Thursday, May 10, bipartisan legislation authored by Senator Justin Eichorn (R-Grand Rapids) to protect resources in the Douglas J. Johnson Economic Protection Trust Fund (DJJ) passed the Senate in a 66-0 vote. The bill, SF 2915, adds extra protections to the DJJ to stop future executive branches from transferring funds from the DJJ to the General Fund. The bill is intended to keep the resources instead for their intended purpose of economic development in North Eastern Minnesota.

“This is a great little bill that protects the Douglas J Johnson fund from any potential future where the executive branch would try to use the fund for any reason outside of its intended purpose,” said Sen. Justin Eichorn. “The fund was set up with the intent of fostering economic growth and development in northeastern Minnesota, and from the way I see it, there is still plenty of work left to do.”

The Douglas J. Johnson Economic Protection Trust Fund was created in 1977, under a different name, with an eye toward the eventual slowdown of taconite mining. Initially, it was designed to help the Iron Range “rebuild its economy after what was then anticipated to be the decline of the taconite mining industry.  Its funding comes from a small slice of the total mining revenue.

The goal is to spend the fund’s proceeds on grants and economic development in northern Minnesota. To date, the fund has over $140 million in the corpus