Minnesota Session Laws - 1989, Regular Session

  

                         Laws of Minnesota 1989 

                        CHAPTER 306-H.F.No. 1181 
           An act relating to metropolitan government; providing 
          standards for the development guide; regulating budget 
          reporting; providing tax levy formulas; regulating 
          standards and procedural requirements for determining 
          metropolitan significance; providing for payment of 
          environmental documents from right-of-way loans; 
          amending Minnesota Statutes 1988, sections 473.145; 
          473.1623, subdivision 4, and by adding subdivisions; 
          473.167, subdivisions 2, 3, and 5; 473.173, 
          subdivisions 3 and 4; and 473.249, subdivision 1; 
          repealing Minnesota Statutes 1988, section 473.249, 
          subdivision 3. 
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA: 
    Section 1.  Minnesota Statutes 1988, section 473.145, is 
amended to read:  
    473.145 [DEVELOPMENT GUIDE.] 
    The metropolitan council shall prepare and adopt, after 
appropriate study and such public hearings as may be necessary, 
a comprehensive development guide for the metropolitan area.  It 
shall consist of a compilation of policy statements, goals, 
standards, programs, and maps prescribing guides for an the 
orderly and economic economical development, public and private, 
of the metropolitan area.  The comprehensive development guide 
shall recognize and encompass physical, social, or economic 
needs of the metropolitan area and those future developments 
which will have an impact on the entire area including but not 
limited to such matters as land use, parks and open space land 
needs, the necessity for and location of airports, highways, 
transit facilities, public hospitals, libraries, schools, and 
other public buildings. 
    Sec. 2.  Minnesota Statutes 1988, section 473.1623, 
subdivision 4, is amended to read: 
    Subd. 4.  [FINANCIAL REPORTING; BUDGETING.] (a) The 
advisory committee, with the assistance of the state auditor and 
the legislative auditor, shall develop uniform or consistent 
standards, formats, and procedures for the budgets and financial 
reports of the council and all metropolitan agencies.  The 
council shall report to the legislature from time to time on 
progress made by the committee in improving the uniformity and 
quality of budgets and financial reports and on legislation that 
may be needed for this purpose.  
    (b) The council and each metropolitan agency shall prepare 
a summary budget for agency fiscal year 1988 and each year 
thereafter.  The advisory committee, with the assistance of the 
state auditor and the legislative auditor, shall develop 
guidelines and models for the summary budgets.  The purpose of 
the summary budget is to increase public knowledge and agency 
accountability by providing citizens outside of the agency with 
a condensed, accessible, and graphic description of the 
financial affairs of the agency.  The document should contain a 
coherent, effectively communicated, understandable statement 
of:  financial trends and forecasts; budget policies and policy 
changes; agency financial assumptions, objectives and plans; 
revenue sources and expenditures by program category; personnel 
policies, decisions, and allocation; budgetary performance 
measures; and similar matters serving the purpose of the 
document. 
    (c) The council and each metropolitan agency shall include 
in the annual budget: 
    (1) a statement of the reserve or fund balance carried 
forward at the end of the budget year, for at least the two 
preceding fiscal years; 
    (2) a comparison of budgeted and actual expenditures, 
reported by department and, if the agency has a program budget, 
by program, for at least the two preceding fiscal years; and 
    (3) a listing of proposed or anticipated consulting 
contracts or projects and the amount of each contract or project.
    Sec. 3.  Minnesota Statutes 1988, section 473.1623, is 
amended by adding a subdivision to read: 
    Subd. 4a.  [SUMMARY BUDGET.] The council and each 
metropolitan agency shall prepare a summary budget for agency 
fiscal year 1988 and each year thereafter.  The advisory 
committee, with the assistance of the state auditor and the 
legislative auditor, shall develop guidelines and models for the 
summary budgets.  The purpose of the summary budget is to 
increase public knowledge and agency accountability by providing 
citizens outside of the agency with a condensed, accessible, and 
graphic description of the financial affairs of the agency.  The 
document should contain a coherent, effectively communicated, 
understandable statement of:  financial trends and forecasts; 
budget policies and policy changes; agency financial 
assumptions, objectives, and plans; revenue sources and 
expenditures by program category; personnel policies, decisions, 
and allocation; budgetary performance measures; and similar 
matters serving the purpose of the document. 
    Sec. 4.  Minnesota Statutes 1988, section 473.1623, is 
amended by adding a subdivision to read: 
    Subd. 4b.  [ANNUAL BUDGET.] The council and each 
metropolitan agency shall include in the annual budget: 
    (1) a statement of the reserve or fund balance carried 
forward at the end of the budget year, for at least the two 
preceding fiscal years; 
    (2) a comparison of budgeted and actual expenditures, 
reported by department and, if the agency has a program budget, 
by program, for at least the two preceding fiscal years; 
    (3) a comparison of budgeted and actual revenues, reported 
by revenue source, for at least the two preceding fiscal years; 
and 
    (4) a listing, by contract or project, of proposed or 
anticipated expenditures for consultants and professional, 
technical, and other similar services.  
    Sec. 5.  Minnesota Statutes 1988, section 473.167, 
subdivision 2, is amended to read: 
    Subd. 2.  [LOANS FOR ACQUISITION.] The council may make 
loans to counties, towns, and statutory and home rule charter 
cities within the metropolitan area for the purchase of property 
within the right-of-way of a state trunk highway shown on an 
official map adopted pursuant to section 394.361 or 462.359 or 
for the purchase of property within the proposed right-of-way of 
a principal or intermediate arterial highway designated by the 
council as a part of the metropolitan highway system plan and 
approved by the council pursuant to subdivision 1.  The loans 
shall be made by the council, from the fund established pursuant 
to this subdivision, for purchases approved by the council.  The 
loans shall bear no interest.  The council shall make loans 
only:  (1) to accelerate the acquisition of primarily 
undeveloped property when there is a reasonable probability that 
the property will increase in value before highway construction, 
and to update an expired environmental impact statement on a 
project for which the right-of-way is being purchased; or (2) to 
avert the imminent conversion or the granting of approvals which 
would allow the conversion of property to uses which would 
jeopardize its availability for highway construction.  The 
council shall not make loans for the purchase of property at a 
price which exceeds the fair market value of the property or 
which includes the costs of relocating or moving persons or 
property.  A private property owner may elect to receive the 
purchase price either in a lump sum or in not more than four 
annual installments without interest on the deferred 
installments.  If the purchase agreement provides for 
installment payments, the council shall make the loan in 
installments corresponding to those in the purchase agreement.  
The recipient of an acquisition loan shall convey the property 
for the construction of the highway at the same price which the 
recipient paid for the property.  The price may include the 
costs of preparing environmental documents that were required 
for the acquisition and that were paid for with money that the 
recipient received from the loan fund.  Upon notification by the 
council that the plan to construct the highway has been 
abandoned or the anticipated location of the highway changed, 
the recipient shall sell the property at market value in 
accordance with the procedures required for the disposition of 
the property.  All rents and other money received because of the 
recipient's ownership of the property and all proceeds from the 
conveyance or sale of the property shall be paid to the 
council.  If a recipient is not permitted to include in the 
conveyance price the cost of preparing environmental documents 
that were required for the acquisition, then the recipient is 
not required to repay the council an amount equal to 40 percent 
of the money received from the loan fund and spent in preparing 
the environmental documents.  The proceeds of the tax authorized 
by subdivision 3, all money paid to the council by recipients of 
loans, and all interest on the proceeds and payments shall be 
maintained as a separate fund.  For administration of the loan 
program the council may expend from the fund each year an amount 
no greater than three percent of the amount of the authorized 
levy for that year. 
    Sec. 6.  Minnesota Statutes 1988, section 473.167, 
subdivision 3, is amended to read: 
    Subd. 3.  [TAX.] The council may levy a tax on all taxable 
property in the metropolitan area, as defined in section 
473.121, to provide funds for loans made pursuant to 
subdivisions 2 and 2a.  This tax for the right-of-way 
acquisition loan fund shall be certified by the council, levied, 
and collected in the manner provided by section 473.13.  The tax 
shall be in addition to that authorized by section 473.249 and 
any other law and shall not affect the amount or rate of taxes 
which may be levied by the council or any metropolitan agency or 
local governmental unit.  The amount of the levy shall be as 
determined and certified by the council, except as otherwise 
provided in this subdivision.  
    The property tax levied by the metropolitan council for the 
right-of-way acquisition loan fund shall not exceed the 
following amount for the years specified: 
    (a) for taxes payable in 1988, the product of 5/100 of one 
mill multiplied by the total assessed valuation of all taxable 
property located within the metropolitan area as adjusted by the 
provisions of Minnesota Statutes 1986, sections 272.64; 273.13, 
subdivision 7a; and 275.49; 
    (b) for taxes payable in 1989, except as provided in 
section 473.249, subdivision 3, the product of (1) the 
metropolitan council's property tax levy limitation for the 
right-of-way acquisition loan fund for the taxes payable year 
1988 determined under clause (a) multiplied by (2) an index for 
market valuation changes equal to the assessment year 1988 total 
market valuation of all taxable property located within the 
metropolitan area divided by the assessment year 1987 total 
market valuation of all taxable property located within the 
metropolitan area; and 
    (c) for taxes payable in 1990, an amount not to exceed 
$2,700,000; and 
    (d) for taxes payable in 1990 1991 and subsequent years, 
the product of (1) the metropolitan council's property tax levy 
limitation for the right-of-way acquisition loan fund for the 
previous year taxes payable in 1988 determined pursuant to this 
subdivision under clause (a) multiplied by (2) an index for 
market valuation changes equal to the total market valuation of 
all taxable property located within the metropolitan area for 
the current assessment year divided by the total market 
valuation of all taxable property located within the 
metropolitan area for the previous 1987 assessment year. 
    For the purpose of determining the metropolitan council's 
property tax levy limitation for the right-of-way acquisition 
loan fund for the taxes payable year 1988 and subsequent years 
under this subdivision, "total market valuation" means the total 
market valuation of all taxable property within the metropolitan 
area without valuation adjustments for fiscal disparities 
(chapter 473F), tax increment financing (sections 469.174 to 
469.179), and high voltage transmission lines (section 273.425). 
    The property tax levied under this subdivision for taxes 
payable in 1988 and subsequent years shall not be levied at a 
rate higher than that determined by the metropolitan council to 
be sufficient, considering the other anticipated revenues of and 
disbursements from the right-of-way acquisition loan fund, to 
produce a balance in the loan fund at the end of the next 
calendar year equal to twice the amount of the property tax levy 
limitation for taxes payable in the next calendar year 
determined under this section. 
    Sec. 7.  Minnesota Statutes 1988, section 473.167, 
subdivision 5, is amended to read: 
    Subd. 5.  [LEVY INCREASE.] For the purpose of determining 
the levy limitation for taxes payable in 1989 under subdivision 
3, the levy limitation for taxes payable in 1988 shall be 
multiplied by two.  The levy limitation so determined for taxes 
payable in 1989 shall be the basis for determining levy 
limitations for taxes payable in 1990 and subsequent years under 
subdivision 3. 
    Sec. 8.  Minnesota Statutes 1988, section 473.173, 
subdivision 3, is amended to read:  
    Subd. 3.  In developing the rules the council and the 
advisory metropolitan land use committee, as defined in section 
473.852, shall give consideration to all factors deemed relevant 
including but not limited to the following: 
    (1) The impact a proposed matter will have on the orderly, 
economic economical development, public and private, of the 
metropolitan area and its consistency with the metropolitan 
development guide; 
    (2) The relationship a proposed matter will have to the 
policy statement goals, standards, programs and other applicable 
provisions of the development guide; 
    (3) The impact a proposed matter will have on policy plans 
adopted by the council and on the implementation plans and 
functions performed and to be performed by a metropolitan agency 
that is subject to section 473.161; 
    (4) Functions of municipal governments in respect to 
control of land use as provided for under the municipal planning 
act. 
    Sec. 9.  Minnesota Statutes 1988, section 473.173, 
subdivision 4, is amended to read: 
    Subd. 4.  The rules shall include, without limitation, 
provisions to effectuate and comply with the following powers 
and requirements: 
    (1) No applicant shall be required to submit a proposed 
matter for review more than once unless it is materially altered.
    (1a) A public hearing shall be held prior to the final 
determination with regard to a proposed matter. 
    (2) The council shall be empowered to suspend action on a 
proposed matter during the period of review and for a period not 
to exceed 12 months following the issuance of its final 
determination.  In its final determination, the council may 
prescribe appropriate conditions with regard to a proposed 
matter which, if incorporated or complied with, would cause the 
council to remove the suspension. 
    (3) The council's recommendation or determination 
concerning a proposed matter, including the determination as to 
its metropolitan significance, shall be issued within 90 days 
following its receipt of a proposal accompanied by adequate 
supporting information, unless all parties consent in writing to 
an extension.  The council shall extend the time to complete the 
proceeding by an additional 30 days if the council determines 
that a fair hearing cannot be completed in the time allowed.  To 
avoid duplication, the review may be suspended for not more than 
90 days to await completion of review of a matter by another 
public agency. 
    (4) The council shall be required to review a proposed 
matter upon request of an affected local governmental unit or 
metropolitan agency that is subject to section 473.161.  The 
rules shall include a procedure for review of a proposed matter 
upon petition by a specified number of residents of the 
metropolitan area 18 years of age or older. 
     (5) The council shall be empowered to review all proposed 
matters of metropolitan significance regardless of whether the 
council has received a request from an affected body to conduct 
that review. 
     (6) The council shall review all proposed matters 
determined to be of metropolitan significance as to their 
consistency with and effect upon metropolitan system plans as 
defined in section 473.852 and their adverse effects on other 
local governmental units. 
     (7) Previously approved policy plans and implementation 
plans and areas of operational authority of metropolitan 
agencies that are subject to section 473.161 shall not be 
subject to review under this section, except as specifically 
provided in section 473.171. 
    (8) When announcing the scope of a significance review in 
the notice commencing the review, the council shall state with 
particularity, with respect to each issue identified in the 
scoping document, the policies, provisions, statements, or other 
elements in metropolitan development guide chapters or policy 
plans and any other criteria or standards that will be 
considered or relied on in assessing and determining the 
metropolitan significance of the proposed project.  The 
statement may be amended by notice to all parties given at least 
seven days before the public hearing.  The statement does not 
preclude council comment on the consistency of the proposed 
project with any plans or policies of the council. 
    (9) Hearings must be conducted in accordance with the 
following procedures, unless waived in writing by the parties: 
    (a) The parties have the right to counsel. 
    (b) All testimony must be under oath. 
    (c) A complete and accurate record of all proceedings must 
be maintained. 
    (d) Any party or witness may be questioned by the hearing 
committee or judge, or by other parties. 
    (e) The burden of proof that a matter is of metropolitan 
significance is on the council. 
    (f) Decisions of the council on the metropolitan 
significance of a project must be based on a fair preponderance 
of the relevant evidence contained in the record and on written 
findings. 
    Sec. 10.  Minnesota Statutes 1988, section 473.249, 
subdivision 1, is amended to read: 
    Subdivision 1.  The metropolitan council may levy a tax on 
all taxable property in the metropolitan area defined in section 
473.121 to provide funds for the purposes of sections 473.121 to 
473.249 and for the purpose of carrying out other 
responsibilities of the council as provided by law.  This tax 
for general purposes shall be levied and collected in the manner 
provided by section 473.13. 
    The property tax levied by the metropolitan council for 
general purposes shall not exceed the following amount for the 
years specified: 
    (a) for taxes payable in 1988, the product of 8/30 of one 
mill multiplied by the total assessed valuation of all taxable 
property located within the metropolitan area as adjusted by the 
provisions of Minnesota Statutes 1986, sections 272.64; 273.13, 
subdivision 7a; and 275.49; 
    (b) for taxes payable in 1989, the product of (1) the 
metropolitan council's property tax levy limitation for general 
purposes for the taxes payable year 1988 determined under clause 
(a) multiplied by (2) an index for market valuation changes 
equal to the assessment year 1988 total market valuation of all 
taxable property located within the metropolitan area divided by 
the assessment year 1987 total market valuation of all taxable 
property located within the metropolitan area; and 
     (c) for taxes payable in 1990 and subsequent years, the 
product of (1) the metropolitan council's property tax levy 
limitation for general purposes for the previous year determined 
under this subdivision multiplied by (2) the lesser of 
    (i) an index for market valuation changes equal to the 
total market valuation of all taxable property located within 
the metropolitan area for the current assessment year divided by 
the total market valuation of all taxable property located 
within the metropolitan area for the previous assessment year; 
    (ii) an index equal to the implicit price deflator for 
state and local government purchases of goods and services for 
the most recent month for which data are available divided by 
the implicit price deflator for state and local government 
purchases of goods and services for the same month of the 
previous year; or 
    (iii) 103 percent. 
    For the purpose of determining the metropolitan council's 
property tax levy limitation for general purposes for the taxes 
payable year 1988 and subsequent years under this subdivision, 
"total market valuation" means the total market valuation of all 
taxable property within the metropolitan area without valuation 
adjustments for fiscal disparities (chapter 473F), tax increment 
financing (sections 469.174 to 469.179), and high voltage 
transmission lines (section 273.425). 
    Sec. 11.  [APPLICATION.] 
    This act applies in the counties of Anoka, Carver, Dakota, 
Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, and Washington. 
    Sec. 12.  [REPEALER.] 
    Minnesota Statutes 1988, section 473.249, subdivision 3, is 
repealed. 
    Sec. 13.  [EFFECTIVE DATE.] 
    Sections 6, 7, 10, and 12 are effective for property taxes 
payable in 1990 and subsequent years. 
    Presented to the governor May 30, 1989 
    Signed by the governor June 1, 1989, 11:42 p.m.