Bill Text: MN SF1044 | 2011-2012 | 87th Legislature | Chaptered
Bill Title: Natural disasters state agencies responses provisions modifications; flood damage assistance provisions modification
Sponsorship: Moderate Partisan Bill (Republican 5-1)
Status: (Passed) 2011-05-24 - Governor approval [SF1044 Detail]
Download: Minnesota-2011-SF1044-Chaptered.html
CHAPTER 67--S.F.No. 1044
An act
relating to state government; modifying provisions relating to state agency responses to natural disasters;amending Minnesota Statutes 2010, sections
12A.05; 12A.06, subdivision 1; 12A.07, subdivisions 1, 2; 12A.09, subdivision
4; 12A.10, by adding a subdivision; 12A.12, subdivisions 2, 3, by adding a
subdivision; 12A.15, by adding a subdivision; 12A.16.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:
Section 1. Minnesota Statutes 2010, section 12A.05, is amended to read:
12A.05 BOARD OF WATER AND SOIL RESOURCES.
Subdivision 1. Reinvest in Minnesota (RIM) conservation easements. The board
may use appropriations to acquire easements from landowners on marginal or damaged
lands in the disaster area to provide flood attenuation, to restore and protect soil and water
The board may use
the program.
Subd. 2. Erosion
recovery program and use appropriations to install, repair, or rehabilitate erosion and
sediment control and water quality and watershed protection projects in the disaster area
The board may use
the disaster recovery program and to address critical conservation problems resulting
from the disaster that are funded in whole or in part with state sources, to the extent that
combined federal and state funding does not exceed 100 percent.
Subd. 3. Waivers and extensions authorized. The board may waive the provisions
of Minnesota Rules, chapter 8400, in the disaster area on land damaged by the disaster.
existing
Sec. 2. Minnesota Statutes 2010, section 12A.06, subdivision 1, is amended to read:
Subdivision 1. Disaster enrollment impact aid. The commissioner may pay
disaster enrollment impact aid to a school district in an amount set in law times the
number of
must provide to the commissioner documentation of the number of pupils in average daily
membership lost by grade level as a result of the disaster.
Sec. 3. Minnesota Statutes 2010, section 12A.07, subdivision 1, is amended to read:
Subdivision 1. Minnesota investment fund. The commissioner may use state
appropriations for grants to local units of government for locally administered grants or
loan programs as provided in this section for assistance to eligible organizations directly
and adversely affected by the disaster. Funds may be used only to address physical
damage to buildings and such personal property as machinery, equipment, fixtures, and
furniture. A loan may not duplicate or replace equivalent assistance available from
insurance, other organizations, or government agencies.
Sec. 4. Minnesota Statutes 2010, section 12A.07, subdivision 2, is amended to read:
Subd. 2. Assistance. Criteria and requirements must be locally established with
the approval of the commissioner. Local plans must specify the type of assistance to
be provided to eligible organizations. Within the limits of the available grant amounts,
assistance may be provided as loans with or without interest and as forgivable loans. The
criteria must, at a minimum, specify that an organization receiving a forgivable loan
must remain in the local community a minimum of
loan, after which the amount of loan forgiveness must follow a schedule provided by
the commissioner for an additional five years. Loans made under this section must not
be used to refinance debt that existed on the date of the disaster. Repayment of loan
amounts is made to the local community.
Sec. 5. Minnesota Statutes 2010, section 12A.09, subdivision 4, is amended to read:
Subd. 4. Waivers authorized. For assistance under subdivision 2, the requirements
of section
Sec. 6. Minnesota Statutes 2010, section 12A.10, is amended by adding a subdivision
to read:
Subd. 4. Nursing home bed layaway. In consultation with the commissioner of
human services, the commissioner of health may waive timelines specified in section
144A.071, subdivision 4b, at any time when a partial or complete evacuation occurs in
response to a natural disaster, a possible natural disaster, or another event that threatens
the health and safety of residents of a nursing home. For a nursing home placing beds
in or removing them from layaway under this subdivision, property payment rates must
not be adjusted.
Sec. 7. Minnesota Statutes 2010, section 12A.12, subdivision 2, is amended to read:
Subd. 2. Flood hazard mitigation grants. The commissioner may use state
appropriations for the state's share of flood hazard mitigation grants for capital
improvements to prevent or alleviate flood damage under section
area. The commissioner shall determine project priorities, as appropriate, based on need.
To the extent that the cost of a project funded under this subdivision in a given
municipality exceeds two percent of the median household income in the municipality,
multiplied by the number of households in the municipality, the commissioner may also
use the appropriation for the local share of the project.
EFFECTIVE DATE.This section is effective retroactively from October 19, 2010.
Sec. 8. Minnesota Statutes 2010, section 12A.12, subdivision 3, is amended to read:
Subd. 3. Debris removal;
may use appropriations for
waters and installing and repairing flood warning gauges.
Sec. 9. Minnesota Statutes 2010, section 12A.12, is amended by adding a subdivision
to read:
Subd. 3a. Dam renovation and removal. The commissioner may use
appropriations to provide cost share for renovating or removing publicly owned dams in
the disaster area under sections 103G.511 and 103G.515.
Sec. 10. Minnesota Statutes 2010, section 12A.15, is amended by adding a subdivision
to read:
Subd. 2a. Long-term recovery assistance. The commissioner may use
appropriations to provide technical assistance to local jurisdictions or to make grants to
counties, regional consortia, and nonprofit organizations working in the disaster area to
provide assistance in coordinating long-term recovery activities related to the disaster.
Sec. 11. Minnesota Statutes 2010, section 12A.16, is amended to read:
12A.16 TRANSPORTATION.
Subdivision 1. Transportation infrastructure operation and maintenance. The
commissioner may use appropriations from the trunk highway fund for transportation
infrastructure operation and maintenance related to a disaster.
Subd. 1a. Emergency relief account in trunk highway fund. The commissioner
may use appropriations from the emergency relief account in the trunk highway fund for
infrastructure repair, maintenance, and operation related to a disaster.
Subd. 2. State
The commissioner is responsible to reconstruct and repair trunk highways and trunk
highway bridges located in the disaster area and damaged by the disaster.
Subd. 3. Local road and bridge
The commissioner may make grants to local governments for the capital costs of
repairing, reconstructing
demolition and design costs, damaged or destroyed by the disaster. Grants may also
be used for reasonable costs to mitigate damage from future disasters when to do so is
part of a project to repair, reconstruct, or replace infrastructure damaged in the disaster.
Before the commissioner releases grant money, a grantee must submit final plans to the
commissioner for each project under this subdivision. The commissioner must determine
project priorities, review project plans in light of those priorities, and, if necessary, require
changes to the project plans to ensure the most prudent use of limited state resources.
Subd. 4. Local guidelines. The commissioner, in consultation with the
commissioner of public safety, must develop guidelines for local governments to use to
respond to natural disasters in order to maximize the use of federal disaster assistance.
The guidelines must address the use of local employees and equipment and contracted
employees and equipment in the disaster response and the relative eligibility for federal
reimbursement and clarify agency roles and responsibilities for damage estimates used for
developing emergency state appropriations.
Subd. 5. Waivers authorized. The requirements of section
6, 6a, and 7, are waived for grants under subdivision 3.
Sec. 12. FLOOD DAMAGE ASSISTANCE.
Unspent general funds that are transferred to the commissioner of natural resources
from Laws 2010, Second Special Session chapter 1, are available to be disbursed as grants
to the cities located within a county designated for public assistance under Presidential
Declaration of a Major Disaster FEMA-1941-DR, whether included in the original
declarations or added later by federal government action, for payment of a portion of
outstanding water and sewer infrastructure municipal bond debt, not to exceed the
proportion of the outstanding debt represented by the percentage of taxable building
structures that were bought out through the flood hazard mitigation program under Laws
2010, Second Special Session chapter 1.
EFFECTIVE DATE.This section is effective the day following final enactment.
Sec. 13. FLOOD HAZARD MITIGATION GRANTS; LOCAL SHARE.
Transferred funds under Minnesota Statutes, section 12A.03, subdivision 5, that
are used for flood hazard mitigation grants under Minnesota Statutes, section 12A.12,
subdivision 2, may be used for the local share of flood hazard mitigation grants awarded
under Minnesota Statutes, section 12A.12, subdivision 2, for the storms and flooding
that occurred on or after September 22, 2010, in the area of Minnesota designated under
Presidential Declaration of a Major Disaster FEMA-1941-DR, whether included in the
original declarations or added later by federal government action.
EFFECTIVE DATE.This section is effective retroactively from October 19, 2010.
Presented to the governor May 23, 2011
Signed by the governor May 24, 2011, 4:57 p.m.
