Minnesota Session Laws - 1987, Regular Session

  

                         Laws of Minnesota 1987 

                         CHAPTER 53-H.F.No. 499 
           An act relating to metropolitan government; changing 
          the treatment of current value credits and modifying 
          the cost allocation system of the metropolitan waste 
          control commission; providing for a reserve fund for 
          the commission; authorizing appointment of advisory 
          committees by the commission; authorizing an 
          implementation period for transition to a new cost 
          allocation system; amending Minnesota Statutes 1986, 
          sections 473.511, subdivision 4; and 473.517, 
          subdivisions 1, 2, 3, and 9; repealing Minnesota 
          Statutes 1986, section 473.517, subdivisions 4, 5, and 
          7.  
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA: 
    Section 1.  Minnesota Statutes 1986, section 473.511, 
subdivision 4, is amended to read:  
    Subd. 4.  [CURRENT VALUE OF EXISTING FACILITIES.] When the 
commission assumes the ownership of any existing interceptors or 
treatment works as provided in subdivision 2 or 3, the local 
government unit or units which paid part or all of the cost of 
such facility, directly or pursuant to contracts for 
reimbursement of costs, shall be entitled to receive a credit 
against amounts to be allocated to them under section 473.517, 
which may be spread over such period not exceeding 30 years as 
the commission shall determine, and an additional credit equal 
to interest on the unused credit balance from time to time at 
the rate of four percent per annum.  The amount of such credit 
shall equal the current value of the facility computed by the 
commission in the manner provided in this subdivision at the 
time the commission acquires it.  The original cost of a 
facility shall be computed as the total actual costs of 
constructing it, including engineering, legal, and 
administrative costs, less any part of it paid from federal or 
state funds and less the principal amount of any then 
outstanding bonds which were issued to finance its 
construction.  The original cost shall be multiplied by a factor 
equal to a current cost index divided by the same cost index at 
the time of construction, to determine replacement cost.  The 
cost indices used shall be the Engineering News Record 
Construction Cost Indices for facilities or parts thereof 
completed before 1930, and the United States Public Health 
Service Federal Water Pollution Control Values for Sewer and 
Treatment Plant Construction, as applied to facilities or parts 
thereof completed in or after 1930.  The current value of the 
facility shall be the replacement cost depreciated by 2.50 
percent per annum from the date of construction of treatment 
works and 1.25 percent per annum from the date of construction 
of interceptors; and decreased further by a reasonable allowance 
for obsolescence if the board determines that the facility or 
any part thereof will not be useful for board purposes for at 
least the remaining period required to depreciate it fully, 
assuming no salvage value. The current value of each such 
facility shall be credited to each local government unit in 
proportion to the amount of the construction cost paid by that 
unit, as determined by the commission, taking into account 
reimbursements previously made under contracts between any of 
the local government units.  The commission shall prepare an 
itemized statement of the amount of credit each local government 
unit is entitled to receive under this subdivision, and the 
years and amounts of installments of principal and interest 
thereon, and shall cause it to be mailed or delivered to the 
governing body of each local government unit concerned.  The 
amount of the annual credits of principal and interest made 
under this subdivision to each local government unit shall be 
paid for as current costs of operation and maintenance of the 
facilities for which the credits were made.  All credits allowed 
under this subdivision shall be used to finance current costs 
allocated to the local government unit by the commission or for 
other sewer costs, and the credits shall not be considered as 
proceeds from the sale of municipal property so as to permit 
their use for other purposes. 
    Sec. 2.  Minnesota Statutes 1986, section 473.517, 
subdivision 1, is amended to read:  
    Subdivision 1.  [CURRENT COSTS DEFINED.] The estimated 
costs of operation, maintenance, and debt service of the 
metropolitan disposal system to be paid by the commission in 
each fiscal year, and the costs of acquisition and betterment of 
the system which are to be paid during the year from funds other 
than bond proceeds, including all expenses incurred by the 
council pursuant to sections 473.501 to 473.545, are referred to 
in this section as current costs, and shall be allocated in the 
budget for that year to the respective local government units in 
the metropolitan area as provided in subdivisions 2 to 6.  The 
amount budgeted by the commission for any year for a reserve or 
contingency fund must be treated as a current cost and allocated 
as a cost of operation and maintenance in accordance with this 
section.  The reserve or contingency fund so established may not 
exceed an amount equal to 7.5 percent of the commission's 
operating budget in total. 
    Sec. 3.  Minnesota Statutes 1986, section 473.517, 
subdivision 2, is amended to read:  
    Subd. 2.  [ALLOCATION OF METROPOLITAN TREATMENT WORKS AND 
INTERCEPTOR COSTS; ADJUSTED VOLUME.] Except as provided in 
subdivision 3, the current costs of all treatment works and 
interceptors in the metropolitan disposal system shall be 
allocated among and paid by all local government units which 
will discharge sewage, directly or indirectly, into the 
metropolitan disposal system during the budget year, in 
proportion to the total volume estimated to be so discharged by 
each local government unit, adjusted as follows: 
    (a) Increased or decreased, as the case may be, to the 
extent the commission determines, on the basis of such 
historical and reasonably projected data as may be available, 
that the sewage discharged by one unit will require more or less 
treatment to produce a suitable effluent than that discharged by 
others; 
    (b) Decreased by any amount of surface water estimated by 
the commission to be discharged by a local government unit from 
a combined storm and sanitary sewer system; 
    (c) Increased by that volume of normal sanitary sewage 
which is equivalent for treatment purposes to the volume of 
surface water referred to in (b) above, as determined by the 
commission from available engineering data; and 
    (d) Increased or decreased, as the case may be, by the 
amount of any substantial and demonstrable error in a previous 
estimate. 
    Sec. 4.  Minnesota Statutes 1986, section 473.517, 
subdivision 3, is amended to read:  
    Subd. 3.  [ALLOCATION OF METROPOLITAN TREATMENT WORKS AND 
INTERCEPTOR COSTS; RESERVED CAPACITY.] In preparing each budget 
the commission shall estimate the current costs of acquisition, 
betterment, and debt service, only, of each the treatment works 
in the metropolitan disposal system which will not be used to 
total capacity during the budget year, and the percentage of 
such capacity which will not be used, and shall deduct the same 
percentage of such treatment works costs from the current costs 
allocated under subdivision 2.  The commission shall also 
estimate the current costs of acquisition, betterment, and debt 
service, only, of the interceptors in the metropolitan disposal 
system that will not be used to total capacity during the budget 
year, shall estimate the percentage of the total capacity that 
will not be used, and shall deduct the same percentage of 
interceptor costs from the current costs allocated under 
subdivision 2.  The total amount so deducted with respect to all 
treatment works and interceptors in the system shall be 
allocated among and paid by the respective local government 
units in the metropolitan area for which system capacity unused 
each year is reserved for future use, in proportion to the 
amounts of such capacity reserved for each of them.  
    Sec. 5.  Minnesota Statutes 1986, section 473.517, 
subdivision 9, is amended to read:  
    Subd. 9.  [SEWER SERVICE AREA ADVISORY BOARDS 
COMMITTEES.] Whenever the board establishes a sewer service area 
pursuant to subdivision 7, the government units located in whole 
or in part in such area may establish a sewer service area 
advisory board for such area, comprising not more than five 
members, one each to be appointed by each of the five most 
populous municipalities in such area as determined by the most 
recent decennial or special federal census.  The commission may 
establish and appoint persons to advisory committees to assist 
the commission in the performance of its duties.  If 
established, the advisory board committees shall meet with the 
waste control commission member or members representing such 
area, not less often than quarterly, to consult with such 
members concerning the acquisition, betterment, operation and 
maintenance of interceptors and treatment works in the service 
area metropolitan disposal system, and the allocation of costs 
therefor.  Members of the advisory committee serve without 
compensation but must be reimbursed for their reasonable 
expenses as determined by section 15.059. 
     Sec. 6.  [TRANSITION PLAN.] 
    In order to minimize the effects of the change in the cost 
allocation method provided by sections 1 to 9, the commission 
may adopt a reasonable implementation plan for transition from 
the cost allocation system in effect before the effective date 
of sections 1 to 9 and the cost allocation system established by 
those sections.  The transition plan must cover fiscal years 
1988 to 1991.  It may include, but is not limited to, phase in 
of the difference in charges, to be paid by local government 
units, between the current cost allocation system and the new 
cost allocation system.  The cost allocation system established 
by sections 1 to 9 must be fully effective in fiscal year 1992 
after a phase-in period occurring in fiscal years 1988 through 
1991. 
    Sec. 7.  [CONSTRUCTION.] 
    Minnesota Statutes, section 645.35, shall not be construed 
to apply to sections 1 to 9.  
    Sec. 8.  [REPEALER.] 
    Minnesota Statutes 1986, section 473.517, subdivisions 4, 
5, and 7, are repealed.  
    Sec. 9.  [APPLICATION.] 
    Sections 1 to 8 apply in the counties of Anoka, Carver, 
Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, and Washington. 
    Approved May 4, 1987