Agenda - Council - 05/28/1985 - Laserfiche WebLink

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I ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! I ~esearcn l~eparl:lllUllt Minnesota House of Representatives April 18, 1985 TO: FROM: RE: Representative John Hartinger Tom Todd, Legislative Analyst City Land Disposal Fees under Section 115A.92I Introduction Section 115A.921, enacted in 1984, authorizes a city or town to impose a land disposal fee and to place the revenues into the "general fund for purposes of mitigating and compensating for the local risks, costs, and other adverse effects of disposal facilities." You asked whether this provision would allow a city to expend this money for the following purposes: 1. to replace contaminated water supplies; 2. to pay attorney fees on claims granted by courts; 3. to pay medical bills of persons injured by the landfill; 4. to compensate for property damage resulting from the landfill; 5. to pay city staff costs attributable to the landfill; 6. to pay city costs for an education program to encourage landfill abatement. Analysis There are two possible interpretations of section 115A.92I. The first interpretation is that the purpose statement in the law does not define the purposes for which the city may spend the money but rather expresses the purpose of the statute itself. By this interpretation, the new authority in section 115A.921 to charge the fee, and enhance the city's general revenue, achieves and completes the legislative purpose of mitigating and compensating for the local risks, costs, and other adverse effects of disposal facilities. According to this reading, the section has nothing whatever to say--either by limitation or expansion-- about the purposes for which the city can spend the new dollars. Just having the new dollars achieves the mitigation and compensation intended.