It was also “a great opportunity to visit with other cooperative directors from all over the country, said Anselmo, “and see what their issues are in their areas.” Surprisingly, issues and the cooperative way were common, he said, finding that “rural America is rural America.”

The directors from Minnesota were under the umbrella of the Minnesota Rural Electric Cooperative Association in a program coordinated by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. It was well planned, said Anselmo, and the associations were up on the issues.

The main issues discussed with Legislators were captive rail and proposed pension plan requirements. Only four major railroads now control most of the rail lines in America, said Schmitz – a situation where they can easily control rates. As those railroads are now seeking tax breaks to help fund new infrastructure, it seemed to be a good time to address the dramatically increased costs of shipping from the point of view of utility cooperatives which rely on rail shipments of such things as coal. Those costs are in turn passed to cooperative members.

In fact, said Schmitz, one Legislator told him a Blandin representative had said it was cheaper to ship paper from Helsinki to Indiana than Grand Rapids to Indiana.

The second issue dealt with proposals to raise funding levels for pension plans. Electric cooperatives funding their pension plans through the NRECA have a diversified base, so that the plans would not be affected if a few were to go out of business, explained Schmitz. Funding levels are already better than the 50-60% level of some large corporations. Again, if requirements were changed the costs would be borne by the cooperatives.

It was the first time in many years that North Itasca Electric had participated in a day on Capitol Hill. “I would really like to thank the Membership for giving the board of directors an opportunity to speak on behalf of North Itasca,” said Anselmo.

It was also a first trip to Washington D.C. for both North Itasca Electric directors, and it was a wonderful experience, they said. Even seeing protest rallies and knowing that freedom was there “gave you an insight into how much of a voice we have,” said Anselmo.