2006 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 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. If a producer uses money from the fund 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