1.1 	A bill for an act
1.2 	relating to taconite production taxation; modifying the uses of the taconite 
1.3 	economic development fund;amending Minnesota Statutes 2004, section 
1.4 	298.227.
1.5 	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:

1.6 	Section 1. Minnesota Statutes 2004, section 298.227, is amended to read:
1.7 	298.227 TACONITE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FUND.
1.8 	An amount equal to that distributed pursuant to each taconite producer's taxable 
1.9 	production and qualifying sales under section  298.28, subdivision 9a, shall be held by 
1.10 	the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board in a separate taconite economic 
1.11 	development fund for each taconite and direct reduced ore producer. Money from the 
1.12 	fund for each producer shall be released by the commissioner after review by a joint 
1.13 	committee consisting of an equal number of representatives of the salaried employees and 
1.14 	the nonsalaried production and maintenance employees of that producer. The District 11 
1.15 	director of the United States Steelworkers of America, on advice of each local employee 
1.16 	president, shall select the employee members. In nonorganized operations, the employee 
1.17 	committee shall be elected by the nonsalaried production and maintenance employees. 
1.18 	The review must be completed no later than six months after the producer presents a 
1.19 	proposal for expenditure of the funds to the committee. The funds held pursuant to this 
1.20 	section may be released only for acquisition of plant and stationary mining equipment and 
1.21 	facilities for the producer or for research and development in Minnesota on new mining, or 
1.22 	taconite, iron, or steel production technology, but only if the producer provides a matching 
1.23 	expenditure to be used for the same purpose of at least 50 percent of the distribution based 
1.24 	on 14.7 cents per ton beginning with distributions in 2002. The commissioner may release 
2.1 	the funds only if the proposed expenditure is approved by a majority of the members of the 
2.2 	Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board. If a taconite production facility is sold 
2.3 	after operations at the facility had ceased, any money remaining in the fund for the former 
2.4 	producer may be released to the purchaser of the facility on the terms otherwise applicable 
2.5 	to the former producer under this section. If a producer fails to provide matching funds 
2.6 	for a proposed expenditure within six months after the commissioner approves release 
2.7 	of the funds, the funds are available for release to another producer in proportion to the 
2.8 	distribution provided and under the conditions of this section. Any portion of the fund 
2.9 	which is not released by the commissioner within two years of its deposit in the fund shall 
2.10 	be divided between the taconite environmental protection fund created in section  298.223
2.11 	and the Douglas J. Johnson economic protection trust fund created in section  298.292 for 
2.12 	placement in their respective special accounts. Two-thirds of the unreleased funds shall be 
2.13 	distributed to the taconite environmental protection fund and one-third to the Douglas J. 
2.14 	Johnson economic protection trust fund. 

2.15 	EFFECTIVE DATE. This section is effective for proposals for expenditures of 
2.16 	money from the fund approved after the day following final enactment.