Relating to the financing and operation of state and local government ARTICLE 1 - SALES TAX REBATEProviding for refund of the existing state budget surplus in the form of a rebate of nonbusiness consumer sales taxes paid by individuals in calendar year using information contained in the Minnesota tax incidence report to determine the proportionate share of the rebate due to eligible taxpayers; specifying eligibility; providing separate rebate schedules for taxpayers filing as married filing joint or head of household and for individuals filing as single or married filing separately, defining income; providing for rebates to certain nonresidents; requiring certain adjustments and specifying a total rebate limit; requiring rebates not made by the commissioner of revenue by a certain date to bear interest; including the rebate in the definition of Minnesota tax law for tax data classification and disclosure purposes and in the definition of overpayment for delinquent tax liability purposes; taxpayer right to the rebate to expire after a certain date; authorizing certain claims for correction; subjecting the rebate to revenue recapture; granting the commissioner certain enforcement authority relating to forged or improperly endorsed checks and authorizing the commissioner to contract for check or warrant processing services; authorizing payment of the rebates by electronic funds transfer; appropriating money to the commissioner for the rebates ARTICLE 2 - INCOME AND FRANCHISE TAXESExcepting tax debts cancelled by the department of revenue from the provision providing for continued liability for payment of debts determined to be uncollectible by state agencies, requiring commissioner of revenue notice to debtors of tax write-offs; prohibiting the commissioner or the courts from considering charitable contributions by individuals in the determination of residency for income tax purposes; eliminating certain additions to federal taxable income for S corporation banks; modifying certain subtractions from federal taxable income relating to education expenses and health insurance expenses and certain retirement plan contributions of self employed individuals, eliminating the subtractions for S corporation banks and adding subtractions for a certain percentage of charitable contributions by nonitemizers and for settlement payments received by certain holocaust victims, defining holocaust settlement payments; eliminating the basis adjustment for S corporation banks; modifying the accelerated cost recovery system (ACRS) deduction for individuals; reducing individual income tax rates and modifying the brackets, eliminating the adjustments to calculating the percentage used to apportion the tax liability of part year residents and nonresidents and providing for inflation adjustments; providing an S corporation bank shareholder credit; authorizing and providing for corporations to claim a credit for taxes paid to other states under certain conditions; increasing the working family credit for taxpayers with children; requiring the commissioner to construct tables for determining the working family credit; modifying education tax credit eligibility, expanding the credit to fees or tuition for instruction by members of the Minnesota music teachers association and subjecting the credit to an income based phase out; providing for a marriage penalty credit; reducing the alternative minimum tax rate; providing an AMT subtraction for holocaust settlement payments; eliminating the adjustments to alternative minimum taxable income for S corporation distributions and the adjustments for S corporation distributions and items in calculation of the credit based on the prior year AMT; clarifying the charitable contribution deduction and the net operating loss carryover; subjecting income of unitary businesses to apportionment, excepting nonbusiness income, modifying the definitions of unitary business and nonbusiness income, creating a presumption of the existence of a unitary business under the unitary business principle and limiting the assessment of additional taxes on business income in prior years under certain conditions; modifying the apportionment formulas for multistate businesses and financial institutions; eliminating the prohibition on banks electing to be S corporations for income tax purposes, requiring continued payment of the corporate franchise tax and certain reports to shareholders; excluding holocaust settlement payments from the definition of income for property tax refund purposes; allowing shareholders of bank S corporations a subtraction in computing the alternative minimum tax; appropriating money to the commissioner of revenue for grants to certain qualifying nonprofit organizations for certain taxpayer assistance services ARTICLE 3 - FEDERAL UPDATEUpdating certain state income tax provisions to changes in the internal revenue code (IRC) under the omnibus consolidated and emergency supplemental appropriations act of 1999, the internal revenue service restructuring and reform act of 1998, the transportation equity act for the 21st century and the Ricky Ray hemophilia relief fund act of 1998; updating the definition of internal revenue code for estate tax purposes ARTICLE 4 - SALES AND USE TAXES Authorizing construction industry materials suppliers to report sales on a cash or accrual basis; modifying the beginning date for the computation of interest on capital equipment sales tax refund claims without a schedule reflecting purchases; exempting from the sales tax certain materials, tools and equipment used in metalcasting, sales to outpatient surgical centers, property to be used as prizes for games of chance conducted at certain short term community carnivals, festivals and fairs, materials, supplies and equipment used in certain beef slaughtering and electric generating facility improvement projects, tangible personal property used in the production of television commercials and waste management containers and compactors; retroactively and temporarily exempting from the sales tax materials used to construct buildings to house biosolids processing equipment for wastewater treatment facilities; prescribing rules for the approval, use and termination of local sales taxes; restricting the use of zip codes by retailers in determining the subjection of sales to local sales taxes; authorizing the cities authorized to impose local taxes to fund the central Minnesota events center to impose the taxes under certain project delay conditions, clarifying the special bonding authority and modifying certain conditions for termination of the taxes; granting the cities of New Ulm and Proctor certain local sales tax imposition and bonding authority, providing for use of the revenues ARTICLE 5 - PROPERTY TAXESExpanding the jurisdiction of the small claims division of the tax court to certain taxpayers appealing denials of current year applications for homestead classification; eliminating the requirement for property owned by certain nonprofit charitable organizations intended for use as a business incubator in a high unemployment county to be occupied on the assessment date for property tax exemption purposes; exempting from the property tax certain personal property of certain simple cycle combustion turbine electric generation facilities, property already exempt and sold to a Minnesota electric utility and property of certain facilities adjacent to taconite mine direct reduction steel mills; providing the treatment of certain property owned by utilities and leased for residential or recreational uses as separate parcels for property tax purposes; modifying the limit on market value increases for agricultural, residential and noncommercial seasonal recreational residential (cabin) property; modifying eligibility for "this old house" treatment; providing for continuation of green acres valuation and tax deferral for certain property dissected by major parkways or interstate highways; expanding the relative homestead qualification provision to nieces or nephews of the owner; providing agricultural homestead classification for certain property owned by family farm corporation shareholders and leased to the corporation, relative homestead treatment of property occupied by children of a deceased owner during the probate process and homestead classification of additional leased land and buildings under certain conditions, eliminating certain limits on the classification of property as agricultural homestead property; granting county auditors or treasurers access to social security and federal identification numbers maintained for property tax administration purposes to assist the commissioner of revenue in the preparation of microdata tax information samples; sunsetting a certain provision providing for agricultural homestead classification of certain property not occupied by the owner and providing for homestead classification of certain agricultural property not occupied but actively farmed by the owner; prohibiting local government units from imposing additional requirements intended to disqualify property from homestead classification; increasing the valuation limit and reducing the classification rate for the first tier of residential homestead property and clarifying the income used in determining eligibility for the permanently and totally disabled homestead classification; reducing the classification rates for certain agricultural homestead property and expanding the definition of agricultural products to insects primarily bred as food for animals and to trees grown for sale as a crop and not sold for timber, lumber, wood or wood products; modifying certain provisions providing for the classification of commercial and industrial property and reducing the classification rates; imposing a personal property tax on the leaseholds of tenants of certain structures qualifying for the transit zone classification; increasing the valuation limit and reducing the classification rates for certain apartment and noncommercial seasonal recreational residential property and reducing the classification rates; eliminating the special classification rate applying to certain warehouse property converted to apartments; subjecting manufactured home park land to the same classification rates as residential nonhomestead property, legislative intent; reducing the classification rate for certain personal property and deleting certain types of public utility property included under certain commercial and industrial property classification provisions from the classification; increasing the education homestead credit and eliminating a certain adjustment requirement; creating an education agricultural credit; modifying the tax base differential accordingly for the payment of homestead and agricultural credit aid (HACA), specifying certain estimate and adjustment requirements of the commissioner of revenue; modifying the increase in the limit on commissioner of finance fiscal local impact notes preparation costs recovery; authorizing property owners to refuse to allow assessors to inspect property and assessors denied access to estimate the market value of the property, prohibiting the county board from adjusting the market value or classification of property of owners denying access to benefit the property; modifying the distribution of interest on property tax delinquencies; modifying the definition of agricultural homestead for property tax refund purposes; expanding eligibility for the senior citizens property tax deferral program; eliminating the restriction on homestead classification of residences adjacent to the Giants Ridge recreation area; authorizing counties to acquire development rights in the form of conservation easements and expanding the definition of capital improvement to include the development rights for capital improvement bonds issuance authority purposes, authorizing statutory cities, counties and towns to issue debt obligations for the rights; eliminating a certain provision requiring the housing finance agency (HFA) to adopt procedures and deadlines for application for certification of housing qualifying for the reduced property tax rate by a certain date; authorizing housing and redevelopment authorities (HRA) to exempt certain low rent public housing from real and personal property taxes, requiring authority in lieu payments; increasing the local government aid (LGA) base for certain smaller cities; expanding city eligibility for existing low income housing aid; extending the moratorium on changes in assessment practices for elderly assisted living facilities; delaying the expiration date of a certain provision requiring Washington county to inform property taxpayers of the possibility of release of personal information for marketing purposes; authorizing Lake county, the city of Two Harbors and independent school district 381, Lake Superior to abate taxes levied on certain property and the county auditor to subsequently record the conveyance of the property; folding local performance aid into certain other local government aids; requiring the commissioner of revenue to develop a proposal for replacement of the revenue lost to local government units from elimination of the electric utility personal property tax and report to the legislature by a certain date; authorizing and providing for Dakota county to impose administrative penalties for violation of water resource protection ordinances; providing for a one time payment to certain hospitals for reimbursement for providing medical care to nonresident indigents (charity care aid); providing a property tax credit for certain nonhomestead property damaged by a tornado; repealing a certain requirement for the commissioner of revenue to provide county assessors with agricultural land valuation schedules, local performance aid and the transit zone taxing authority of the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul ARTICLE 6 - LEVY AUTHORIZATION AND LEVY LIMITSAuthorizing county board tax levies for redistricting expenses, limit; requiring county auditors to annually certify certain information to cities and county boards for tax rate calculation purposes and specifying certain requirements for tax rate increases; authorizing special levies for county jail or correctional facility operation and maintenance expenses; setting the levy limit base for cities with a population over 2,500; extending the calculation of the adjusted levy limit base; reducing the levy limit base for counties to reflect the state takeover of additional court costs; extending the calculation of the adjusted levy base and the levy limits; authorizing local government unit cooperation and combination plans to provide for the equalization of differing tax rates over a certain period of time; eliminating the authority of the metropolitan council to levy for the tax base revitalization account of the livable communities fund; increasing the levy limit of the Cook Orr hospital district, requiring a certain portion to be used for ambulance acquisitions; extending the effective date for the general levy limit law; authorizing a cemetery levy by Carlton county for the township of Sawyer; increasing the levy limit base of Goodhue county and providing a temporary homestead and agricultural credit aid (HACA) adjustment for the county; increasing the levy limit base for the city of Grant; authorizing administrative fund levies in the north fork Crow River and Sauk River watershed districts; authorizing the city of Stillwater to establish separate urban and rural service taxing districts for orderly annexation purposes ARTICLE 7 - SPECIAL TAXES Clarifying the exclusion of insurance guaranty joint underwriting association fees from a certain provision requiring imposition of the same taxes, fines, deposits, penalties, licenses, fees and conditions on foreign insurance companies as imposed on domestic companies by the state or country of the foreign company; requiring the commissioner of revenue to allow refunds of gasoline taxes paid on undyed kerosene used as fuel for other than motor vehicle purposes and by distributors on certain leaded (racing) gasoline; defining business day and delaying the date for payment of pull tab and tipboard taxes; reducing the lawful gambling, pull tab and tipboard and combined receipts tax rates; clarifying the definition of wholesale price and modifying the time limit for claiming bad debt refunds for cigarette and tobacco products tax purposes; clarifying the imposition of the solid waste management tax on self haulers of mixed municipal solid waste and exempting from the tax daily cover for landfills approved in writing by the pollution control agency (PCA)ARTICLE 8 - MINNESOTACARE TAXESModifying the definition of health care provider for MinnesotaCare gross earnings tax purposes, eliminating the definition of the phrase directly to a patient or consumer and excluding from the definition home health agencies, personal care and private duty nursing services and certain employers of health care providers providing patient services to employees or students; extending the lower health care provider tax rate; expanding the exemptions for government payments and for payments received for care provided outside the state and by educational institutions from student tuition or fees and exempting from the tax payments received from licensed nursing homes for services provided to the nursing home and received for examinations for utilization review, insurance claims or eligibility, litigation or employment purposes; modifying certain estimated tax payment requirements and the interest rate on estimated tax underpayments; authorizing the commissioner of revenue to use statistical or other sampling techniques consistent with generally accepted auditing standards in examining returns or records and making assessments; appropriating money to the commissioner of finance for deposit in the health care access fundARTICLE 9 - TACONITE TAXATIONContinuing the freeze on the taconite production tax and extending the special distribution of tax proceeds used for grants to taconite producers; authorizing the use of money from the corpus of the northeast Minnesota economic protection trust fund for grants or equity investments and eliminating the expiration of the authority of the iron range resources and rehabilitiation board to make loans or grants from the fund for direct reduced iron processing facilities or new mines; appropriating money to the Minnesota minerals 21st century fund, specifying a total fund appropriation limit and an IRRRB match requirement ARTICLE 10 - TAX INCREMENT FINANCINGReducing the local contribution rate for housing districts for tax increment financing state aid offset exemption purposes; prohibiting the use of TIF for social or recreational facilities and for certain improvements, equipment or other items located outside the area of increments collection, excepting expenditures for rehabilitation of certain historic structures; authorizing and providing for the transfer of available increments from one TIF district to another to eliminate deficits caused by property tax classification rate reductions subject to certain limits and conditions, setting pooling rules for certain pre-1982 districts; requiring certain TIF violation enforcement notices and providing for attorney general petition in the tax court to suspend TIF authority for certain violations; expanding local tax abatement authority to the deferral of certain taxes and the abatement of interest and penalties on the deferred taxes and authorizing the use of property tax abatements to fund public infrastructure; authorizing local government units to abate fiscal disparities tax and school districts to abate the full amount of tax; eliminating the requirement for schools to annually reapprove abatements; authorizing tax abatement without consent of the property owner and the retention of abatements to pay for infrastructure costs; extending the TIF deficit grant program, modifying the application date and expanding authorized grant uses; extending the time limit for commencement of certain activities in a certain TIF district in the city of Onamia; excepting certain TIF districts established by the St. Cloud housing and redevelopment authority from pooling restrictions; providing for the determination of the duration limit for the Williams Hill TIF district in the city of St. Paul; extending or authorizing the extension of the duration of certain TIF districts in the cities of Jackson, Fridley and Dawson; ratifying the expenditure of tax increments on administrative expenses and public utility or other improvements by the city of Minneota; authorizing the city of Brooklyn Center to change the fiscal disparities election relating to a certain TIF district; exempting the Mill Ruins park, Milwaukee Road depot and former federal reserve bank TIF districts in Minneapolis from the prohibition on the use of TIF for social and recreational facilities; appropriating money to the commissioner of revenue for the TIF grant program; repealing the replaced special pooling authority under the TIF grant program ARTICLE 11 - STATE FUNDING OF DISTRICT COURTSProviding for state assumption of court administration employees and costs in the fifth, seventh, eighth and ninth judicial districts; providing for the payment of certain fees, fines and forfeited bail money collected in the districts to the state; cancelling the transfer of homestead and agricultural credit aid to family preservation aid, reducing the increase in family preservation aid and providing a HACA offset for court costs; prohibiting counties in the judicial districts from levying taxes for court functions transferred to the state, exception; requiring sums forfeited to the county courts to be reinstated by the state treasurer; appropriating money to the district courts to fund expensesARTICLE 12 - BUSINESS SUBSIDIESRegulating local and state business subsidies; requiring subsidies to meet a public purpose other than increasing the tax base and restricting the use of job retention as a public purpose; requiring grantors to adopt criteria for awarding business subsidies, public hearing requirement; requiring recipients to enter into subsidy agreements with grantors, specifying certain content requirements, requiring subsidies in the form of grants to be structured as forgivable loans and specifying certain wage and job goal requirements; requiring public hearings on certain larger subsidies; requiring grantors to monitor progress by recipients in achieving agreement goals, specifying certain reporting requirements of recipients and grantors and certain coordination, compilation and summary publication requirements of the department of trade and economic development (DTED); requiring appropriation riders to the department for particular businesses to contain a statement of the expected benefits associated with the grant; repealing certain existing wage and job growth requirements of businesses receiving government assistance ARTICLE 13 - TAX FORFEITURE AND DELINQUENCY PROCEDURES Modifying certain property tax forfeiture and delinquency procedures; eliminating certain state lands delinquent tax sale redemption provisions; prohibiting the composition into one item or amount by confession of judgment of certain reclassified residential rental property in the cities of Minneapolis or St. Paul; requiring the payment of current year taxes and penalty on certain commercial industrial property due at the time of entry of confession of judgment; modifying and specifying certain content and service requirements for notice of expiration of redemption; modifying the time limits for city or town objections to county board classification or reclassification and sale of tax-forfeited lands and reducing the time limit for county board withholding of the land from public sale, requiring the local unit to pay maintenance costs incurred by the county during the withholding period under certain conditions; authorizing installment payments for tax-forfeited lands according to county board policy, restrictions; authorizing county auditors to provide for the maintenance of tax-forfeited lands until sale; authorizing the use by local government units of net proceeds from the sale or rental of tax-forfeited lands for general purposes; eliminating a certain provision providing for expenditures from forfeited tax sale funds for the eradication of noxious weeds; requiring persons repurchasing land after tax-forfeiture to pay maintenance costs incurred by the county auditor during the time of tax-forfeiture; authorizing county auditors with county board approval to impose limits on the use of parcels subject to repurchase; eliminating the requirement for county board referral of tax reductions or abatements to the commissioner of revenue for consideration upon school board or city objection and the requirement for the St. Louis county auditor to reveal the name of tax sale purchasers in certain records searches; repealing certain provisions relating to refunds of tax certificates on reform school lands, applications for state tax deeds, redemption, tax judgment or sale set asides and right to purchase and to quiet titles and the dismissal of certain actions involving minors, wards or the mentally ill ARTICLE 14 - WATER AND SANITARY SEWER DISTRICTSEstablishing the Cedar Lake area water and sanitary sewer district in Scott county and the Banning junction area water and sanitary sewer district in Pine county under the control and management of respective water and sanitary sewer boards ARTICLE 15 - AUTOMATIC REBATE IN ENACTED BUDGETProviding for automatic rebate of certain excess positive unrestricted budgetary general fund balances to taxpayers at the end of the biennium; specifying certain rebate requirements, certain duties of the commissioner of finance and certain plan preparation requirements of the governor for enactment, modification or rejection by the legislature; appropriating money to the commissioner of revenue for the rebates; abolishing the tax reform and reduction account, balance to revert to the unrestricted general fund balance ARTICLE 16 - MISCELLANEOUSDelaying the requirement for the department of finance to prepare local fiscal impact notes; establishing a tobacco settlement fund, requiring the commissioner of finance to credit tobacco litigation settlement payments received after a certain date to the tobacco settlement fund, other payments to be credited to the general fund; expanding the authority of the commissioner of revenue to abate, reduce or refund tax penalties or interest to taxpayers in presidentially declared disaster areas and eliminating certain attorney general abatement approval requirements; specifying the assessment date for dishonored checks resulting in erroneous refunds; requiring the commissioner to establish an offer in compromise and installment payment program for agricultural tax relief purposes, specifying certain guidelines requirements; providing for the accrual of interest on the penalty for failure to make tax payments by electronic funds transfer (EFT); expanding the definition of claimant agency under the revenue recapture act to private nonprofit hospitals leasing a building from the county; exempting from revenue recapture setoff claim hearing requirements issues relating to the validity of claims previously raised at hearings conducted by the federal department of housing and urban development (HUD) or public agencies responsible for the administration of low income housing programs; making technical corrections to certain mortgage registry tax provisions; providing for divorced and innocent spouse taxpayer liability relief; clarifying the time limit on tax overpayment refund claims and suspending the time period for filing refund claims during periods of disability; requiring the commissioner of revenue to by a certain date prepare a form for filing refund claims; eliminating the time limit for bringing action in the district or tax court relating to nondenied refund claims; applying the general procedural requirements for claiming refunds to capital equipment sales tax refund claims; providing for the registration and taxation of agricultural aircraft; accelerating the sunset of the municipal board, transferring remaining money to the office of strategic and long range planning; authorizing the director of the office to require alternative dispute resolution processes in annexation disputes; authorizing and providing for the commissioner of trade and economic development (DTED) to waive the limits on additional border city enterprise zone allocations to the cities of Breckenridge, Dilworth, East Grand Forks, Moorhead and Ortonville based on certain tax incentive findings by the commissioner of revenue and providing for additional border city enterprise zone allocations to the western border cities, specifying authorized uses; providing a standing appropriation to the commissioner of trade and economic development for the allocation limit waivers and requiring reporting to the commissioner of finance and the legislature of waivers granted; extending the availability of a certain prior appropriation to the commissioner of trade and economic development for border city enterprise zone competitiveness grants; clarifying certain provisions under the farm assistance program, authorizing the aggregation of farms to meet the minimum acreage requirement, qualifying individuals living on but not owning livestock production facilities for the rebate and modifying the livestock production refund relating to leased portions; authorizing and providing for the establishment of an airport impact zone in the city of Richfield; extending tax filing time limits for operation allied force service members; requiring the commissioner of finance to transfer a certain amount of money from the conservation fund to the general fund; appropriating money to the commissioner of revenue for tax administration; repealing certain obsolete provisions relating to certain combined penalties for lawful gambling, cigarette and tobacco products and liquor taxes (Ch. 243, 1999)