HF 2117

1st Engrossment - 86th Legislature (2009 - 2010) Posted on 02/09/2010 01:58am

A bill for an act
relating to environment; changing waste management reporting requirements;
creating a work group; requiring a report; amending Minnesota Statutes 2008,
section 115A.557, subdivision 3.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:

Section 1.

Minnesota Statutes 2008, section 115A.557, subdivision 3, is amended to
read:

Subd. 3.

Eligibility to receive money.

(a) To be eligible to receive money
distributed by the commissioner under this section, a county shall within one year of
October 4, 1989:

(1) create a separate account in its general fund to credit the money; and

(2) set up accounting procedures to ensure that money in the separate account is
spent only for the purposes in subdivision 2.

(b) In each following year, each county shall also:

(1) have in place an approved solid waste management plan or master plan including
a recycling implementation strategy under section 115A.551, subdivision 7, and a
household hazardous waste management plan under section 115A.96, subdivision 6,
by the dates specified in those provisions;

(2) submit a report by April 1 of each year to the commissioner detailing for the
previous calendar year:

(i) how the money was spent including, but not limited to, specific information on
the number of employees performing SCORE planning, oversight, and administration; the
percentage of those employees' total work time allocated to SCORE planning, oversight,
and administration; the specific duties and responsibilities of those employees; and the
amount of staff salary for these SCORE duties and responsibilities of the employees; and

(ii) the resulting gains achieved in solid waste management practices; and

(3) provide evidence to the commissioner that local revenue equal to 25 percent of
the money sought for distribution under this section will be spent for the purposes in
subdivision 2.

(c) The commissioner shall withhold all or part of the funds to be distributed
to a county under this section if the county fails to comply with this subdivision and
subdivision 2.

new text begin (d) The requirements for the report specified in paragraph (b), clause (2), that is due
April 1, 2010, shall be abbreviate in scope. The information collected shall be sufficient
for the commissioner to determine that counties have complied with the requirement
of this subdivision.
new text end

Sec. 2. new text begin WORKING GROUP ON SCORE REPORTING.
new text end

new text begin By July 1, 2009, the commissioner shall convene a working group on SCORE
Reporting to review the requirements for counties to report to the agency on activities
funded under Minnesota Statutes, section 115A.557. The commissioner shall appoint to
the working group representatives from, at a minimum, the following organizations:
the Association of Minnesota Counties, the Solid Waste Administrators Association,
and the Solid Waste Management Coordinating Board. The working group shall make
recommendations to amend the reporting requirements under Minnesota Statutes, section
115A.557, subdivision 3, in ways that reduce the resources counties employ to collect the
data reported, while insuring that estimation methods used to report data are consistent
across counties and that the data reported is accurate and useful as a guide to solid waste
management policy makers. The working group shall also make recommendations
regarding the feasibility and desirability of multicounty reporting of the data. The working
group's recommendations must be presented in a report submitted to the chairs and ranking
minority members of the senate and house of representatives committees with primary
jurisdiction over solid waste policy no later than December 15, 2009.
new text end