Dan Zielske teaches music and anthropology for Minnesota State University, Mankato and South Central Technical College. He also teaches “Vote YES Minnesota” wherever he goes in the state.

Zielske was the guest speaker at Monday night’s meeting of Austin Chapter No. 10 of the Izaak Walton League of America.

He was pinned down immediately with a question, “If the November election were held today, do you believe the Vote YES Minnesota amendment would pass?”

“Yes. I think it will,” he said quickly. “When you look at the wording of the amendment itself, it is very clear. We are telling people about it using the exact working of the amendment and we have gotten between 70 and 75 percent approval so far, according to our independent polling.

“November is a long time away and anything can happen, but if it were done now, I’m quite confident it would pass,” he said.

Zielske said out-state Minnesota citizens are a target for accelerated attention because “they view it as a new tax.”

The Vote YES Minnesota spokesman also said out-state Minnesotans, who didn’t know how the money would be used, “They were really against it.”

But, he added, “Once they figured out it was for the environment and clean water that’s when they said they were all for it.”

Also designed to benefit cultural heritage and the arts, the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment to the Minnesota Constitution would raise an estimated $300 million a year in the beginning and continue for 25 years with a three-eighths of 1 percent state sales tax. Eighty percent of the revenues raised will go toward environmental needs and the rest to the arts.

Can a marriage of the arts and the environment work?

“I think the two work together very well,” Zielske said. “About 90 percent of our artists use natural resources that other Minnesotans also use.”

At Monday night’s Ikes meeting, the tone was set with a DVD starring former governors Wendell Anderson and Arne Carlson, artists, environmentalists and Minnesota outdoors celebrities, such as Ron Schara and his black labrador dog, Raven.

Amidst the backdrop of the state’s beauty, the message was somber: 40 percent of the state’s lakes and rivers are polluted. No drinking, no swimming, no fishing the waters is allowed. Meanwhile, 60 percent of the state waters show “significant pollution.”

Zielske said, “The key to this is not only getting people out to vote on November 4, but to educating them to vote down the ballot.”

The amendment question will be located beneath the President and Vice President, U.S. Senate and U.S. Representative spots on the ballot, but above county commissioner and other local offices and judges.

In other words, finding the question may be difficult for some voters.

“Not voting at all is considered a ‘no’ vote on the amendment question,” Zielske warned.

The Ikes meeting attracted a large crowd of members, guests and the public. Many had questions for the Vote Yes Minnesota spokesman.

Zielske had the answers.

Dan Kane, a local activist, attempted to corner Zielske with a question about the distribution of the funds collected if the amendment passes.

“In general, what you are telling us is that we will be shifting the money collected here to the state to divvy up the way it chooses?” Kane asked Zielske.

“Yes,” was the answer, although he said the state Legislature will decide who allocates the money and what oversight there is for their actions.

Kane pressed Zielske about the distribution of the cultural heritage and arts monies: about 20 percent of the total collected.

According to Zielske, the Minnesota State Historical Society, State Arts Board and regional arts councils will oversee allocations.

The Minnesota Tax Payers League is campaigning against passage of the amendment.

They are fighting the Vote Yes Minnesota environmentalists trying to clean the state’s waters with a campaign named “Don’t Get Hooked on a New Tax.”

Zielske the group’s $3 million war chest makes them formidable opponents and intensifies the need to seek financial support for the coalition’s work.

Speaking before a non-profit organization known and respected for its own environmental protection efforts was like “preaching to the choir” in church.

One Ikes member announced his personal endorsement of the amendment as a candidate for the U.S. Senate, Stephen Williams, Independence Party-endorsed candidate.

The entire Ikes Chapter No. 10 organization has endorsed the amendment.

At Monday night’s meeting, the members voted unanimously to donate proceeds from the July 23 steak cookout fundraiser to the Vote Yes Minnesota organization.