1.1                          A bill for an act
  1.2             relating to education; wind energy education program; 
  1.3             capital improvements; authorizing construction of a 
  1.4             wind power generating facility for Southwest Technical 
  1.5             College; authorizing the sale of state bonds; 
  1.6             appropriating money. 
  1.7   BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA: 
  1.8      Section 1.  [APPROPRIATION; WIND POWER GENERATING 
  1.9   FACILITY.] 
  1.10     (a) $750,000 is appropriated from the bond proceeds fund to 
  1.11  the board of trustees of the Minnesota state colleges and 
  1.12  universities for design, acquisition, and betterment of a wind 
  1.13  power generating facility.  The facility must be located on 
  1.14  publicly owned land on Buffalo Ridge in southwestern Minnesota.  
  1.15  The facility must be operated by Southwest Technical College as 
  1.16  part of the energy training program and must include equipment 
  1.17  for transmittal and storage of data to the college for analysis 
  1.18  and educational purposes.  This appropriation may be 
  1.19  supplemented with money from other sources. 
  1.20     (b) To provide the money appropriated by this act from the 
  1.21  bond proceeds fund, the commissioner of finance, on request of 
  1.22  the governor, shall sell and issue bonds of the state in an 
  1.23  amount up to $750,000 in the manner, on the terms, and with the 
  1.24  effect prescribed by Minnesota Statutes, sections 16A.631 to 
  1.25  16A.675, and by the Minnesota Constitution, article XI, sections 
  1.26  4 to 7. 
  2.1      (c) The board of trustees of the Minnesota state colleges 
  2.2   and universities must pay one-third of the debt service due on 
  2.3   state bonds sold to finance the project authorized in this act.  
  2.4   The commissioner of finance must notify the board of trustees of 
  2.5   the amounts which the board of trustees is assessed for each 
  2.6   year for the life of the bonds.  The commissioner shall reduce 
  2.7   the amount of the assessment each year by one-third of the net 
  2.8   income from investment of the proceeds of the bonds sold to 
  2.9   finance the project.  The board of trustees must pay its net 
  2.10  assessment amount to the commissioner of finance by December 1 
  2.11  each year.  If the board of trustees fails to make a payment 
  2.12  when due, the commissioner of finance must reduce allotments for 
  2.13  appropriations from the general fund otherwise available to the 
  2.14  board of trustees, and apply the amount of the reduction to 
  2.15  cover the missed debt service payment.  The commissioner shall 
  2.16  credit the payments received from the board of trustees to the 
  2.17  bond debt service account in the state bond fund each December 1 
  2.18  before money is transferred from the general fund under 
  2.19  Minnesota Statutes, section 16A.641, subdivision 10.  The board 
  2.20  of trustees may use revenue derived from the sale of electricity 
  2.21  to pay the debt service assessment.