Section 97A.061 Payment in Lieu of Taxes
97A.061 PAYMENT IN LIEU OF TAXES.
Subdivision 1.Applicability; amount.
(a) The commissioner shall annually make a payment to each county having public hunting areas and game refuges. Money to make the payments is annually appropriated for that purpose from the general fund. Except as provided in paragraph (b), this section does not apply to state trust fund land and other state land not purchased for game refuge or public hunting purposes. Except as provided in paragraph (b), the payment shall be the greatest of:
(1) 35 percent of the gross receipts from all special use permits and leases of land acquired for public hunting and game refuges;
(2) 50 cents per acre on land purchased actually used for public hunting or game refuges; or
(3) three-fourths of one percent of the appraised value of purchased land actually used for public hunting and game refuges.
(b) The payment shall be 50 percent of the dollar amount adjusted for inflation as determined under section 477A.12, subdivision 1, paragraph (a), clause (1), multiplied by the number of acres of land in the county that are owned by another state agency for military purposes and designated as a game refuge under section 97A.085.
(c) The payment must be reduced by the amount paid under subdivision 3 for croplands managed for wild geese.
(d) The appraised value is the purchase price for five years after acquisition. The appraised value shall be determined by the county assessor every five years after acquisition.
Subd. 2.Allocation.
(a) Except as provided in subdivision 3, the county treasurer shall allocate the payment among the county, towns, and school districts on the same basis as if the payments were taxes on the land received in the year. Payment of a town's or a school district's allocation must be made by the county treasurer to the town or school district within 30 days of receipt of the payment to the county. The county's share of the payment shall be deposited in the county general revenue fund.
(b) The county treasurer of a county with a population over 39,000 but less than 42,000 in the 1950 federal census shall allocate the payment only among the towns and school districts on the same basis as if the payments were taxes on the lands received in the current year.
(c) If a town received a payment in calendar year 2006 or thereafter under this subdivision, and subsequently incorporated as a city, the city will continue to receive any future year's allocations that would have been made to the town had it not incorporated, provided that the payments will terminate if the governing body of the city passes an ordinance that prohibits hunting within the boundaries of the city.
Subd. 3.Goose management croplands.
(a) The commissioner shall make a payment on July 1 of each year to each county where the state owns more than 1,000 acres of crop land, for wild goose management purposes. The payment shall be equal to the taxes assessed on comparable, privately owned, adjacent land. Money to make the payments is annually appropriated for that purpose from the general fund. The county treasurer shall allocate and distribute the payment as provided in subdivision 2.
(b) The land used for goose management under this subdivision is exempt from taxation as provided in sections 272.01 and 273.19.
Subd. 4.Offset of payments.
Payments to a county or town under this section must be reduced by the amount of payment to that county or town under section 477A.12 for the same lands in the same year.
Subd. 5.Allocation of payments.
Notwithstanding section 477A.14, the amounts paid to a county under section 477A.14 for lands that are also subject to payment under this section shall be allocated within the county in accordance with subdivision 2.
History:
1986 c 383 s 15; 1986 c 386 art 1 s 11; 1987 c 404 s 117; 1993 c 375 art 17 s 3,4; 1994 c 561 s 4,5; 2000 c 490 art 6 s 1,2; 1Sp2005 c 1 art 2 s 96; 2008 c 154 art 2 s 1