2007 Minnesota Statutes

298.227 TACONITE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FUND.
    An amount equal to that distributed pursuant to each taconite producer's taxable production
and qualifying sales under section 298.28, subdivision 9a, shall be held by the Iron Range
Resources and Rehabilitation Board in a separate taconite economic development fund for each
taconite and direct reduced ore producer. Money from the fund for each producer shall be
released by the commissioner after review by a joint committee consisting of an equal number
of representatives of the salaried employees and the nonsalaried production and maintenance
employees of that producer. The District 11 director of the United States Steelworkers of
America, on advice of each local employee president, shall select the employee members. In
nonorganized operations, the employee committee shall be elected by the nonsalaried production
and maintenance employees. The review must be completed no later than six months after the
producer presents a proposal for expenditure of the funds to the committee. The funds held
pursuant to this section may be released only for acquisition of plant and stationary mining
equipment and facilities for the producer or for research and development in Minnesota on new
mining, or taconite, iron, or steel production technology, but only if the producer provides a
matching expenditure to be used for the same purpose of at least 50 percent of the distribution
based on 14.7 cents per ton beginning with distributions in 2002. Effective for proposals for
expenditures of money from the fund beginning May 26, 2007, the commissioner may not
release the funds before the next scheduled meeting of the board. If the board rejects a proposed
expenditure, the funds must be deposited in the Taconite Environmental Protection Fund under
sections 298.222 to 298.225. If a producer uses money which has been released from the fund
prior to May 26, 2007 to procure haulage trucks, mobile equipment, or mining shovels, and the
producer removes the piece of equipment from the taconite tax relief area defined in section
273.134 within ten years from the date of receipt of the money from the fund, a portion of the
money granted from the fund must be repaid to the taconite economic development fund. The
portion of the money to be repaid is 100 percent of the grant if the equipment is removed from the
taconite tax relief area within 12 months after receipt of the money from the fund, declining by
ten percent for each of the subsequent nine years during which the equipment remains within
the taconite tax relief area. If a taconite production facility is sold after operations at the facility
had ceased, any money remaining in the fund for the former producer may be released to the
purchaser of the facility on the terms otherwise applicable to the former producer under this
section. If a producer fails to provide matching funds for a proposed expenditure within six
months after the commissioner approves release of the funds, the funds are available for release
to another producer in proportion to the distribution provided and under the conditions of this
section. Any portion of the fund which is not released by the commissioner within two years of its
deposit in the fund shall be divided between the taconite environmental protection fund created in
section 298.223 and the Douglas J. Johnson economic protection trust fund created in section
298.292 for placement in their respective special accounts. Two-thirds of the unreleased funds
shall be distributed to the taconite environmental protection fund and one-third to the Douglas J.
Johnson economic protection trust fund.
History: 1992 c 511 art 9 s 8; 1993 c 375 art 16 s 1; 1994 c 587 art 6 s 2; 1995 c 264 art
7 s 2; 1996 c 471 art 12 s 1; 1Sp2001 c 5 art 6 s 21; 2003 c 127 art 11 s 12; 2006 c 259 art
12 s 9; 2007 c 135 art 5 s 1