Senate Bill No. 322

Introduced By _______________________________________________________________________________

A Bill for an Act entitled: "An Act creating an abandoned metal mine reclamation state special revenue account; allocating a portion of the resource indemnity trust fund interest to the account; amending section

15-38-202, MCA; and providing an effective date."

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Montana:

NEW SECTION. Section 1.  Abandoned metal mine reclamation state special revenue account. (1) There is an abandoned metal mine reclamation state special revenue account within the state special revenue fund established in 17-2-102.

(2) There must be paid into the account:

(a) funds received from the interest income of the resource indemnity trust fund pursuant to 15-38-202; and

(b) interest income earned on the account.

(3) Subject to the provisions of 82-4-371, the department shall use the money in the account to clean up and reclaim abandoned metal mine sites for which there is not an identifiable, viable, private source of funding for cleanup or reclamation.

Section 2.  Section 15-38-202, MCA, is amended to read:

"15-38-202.   Investment of resource indemnity trust fund -- expenditure -- minimum balance. (1) All money paid into the resource indemnity trust fund, including money payable into the fund under the provisions of 15-36-324 and 15-37-117, must be invested at the discretion of the board of investments. All the net earnings accruing to the resource indemnity trust fund must annually be added to the trust fund until it has reached the sum of $10 million. Thereafter, only the net earnings may be appropriated and expended until the fund reaches $100 million. Thereafter, all net earnings and all receipts must be appropriated by the legislature and expended, provided that the balance in the fund may never be less than $100 million.

(2)  (a) At the beginning of each fiscal year, there is allocated from the interest income of the resource indemnity trust fund $240,000, which is statutorily appropriated, as provided in 17-7-502, from the renewable resource grant and loan program state special revenue account to support the operations of the environmental science-water quality instructional programs at Montana state university-northern, to be used for support costs, for matching funds necessary to attract additional funds to further expand statewide impact, and for enhancement of the facilities related to the programs.

(b)  At the beginning of each biennium, there is allocated from the interest income of the resource indemnity trust fund:

(i)  an amount not to exceed $175,000 to the environmental contingency account pursuant to the conditions of 75-1-1101;

(ii) an amount not to exceed $50,000 to the oil and gas production damage mitigation account pursuant to the conditions of 82-11-161;

(iii) beginning in fiscal year 1996, $2 million to be deposited into the renewable resource grant and loan program state special revenue account, created by 85-1-604, for the purpose of making grants;

(iv) beginning in fiscal year 1996, $3 million to be deposited into the reclamation and development grants state special revenue account, created by 90-2-1104, for the purpose of making grants; and

(v)  beginning in fiscal year 1996, $500,000 to be deposited into the water storage state special revenue account created by 85-1-631; and

(vi) beginning in fiscal year 1998, $700,000 to be deposited into the abandoned metal mine reclamation state special revenue account created by [section 1].

(c)  The remainder of the interest income is allocated as follows:

(i)  Thirty-six percent of the interest income of the resource indemnity trust fund must be allocated to the renewable resource grant and loan program state special revenue account created by 85-1-604.

(ii) Eighteen percent of the interest income of the resource indemnity trust fund must be allocated to the hazardous waste/CERCLA special revenue account provided for in 75-10-621.

(iii) Forty percent of the interest income from the resource indemnity trust fund must be allocated to the reclamation and development grants account provided for in 90-2-1104.

(iv) Six percent of the interest income of the resource indemnity trust fund must be allocated to the environmental quality protection fund provided for in 75-10-704.

(3)  Any formal budget document prepared by the legislature or the executive branch that proposes to appropriate funds from the resource indemnity trust interest account other than as provided for by the allocations in subsection (2) must specify the amount of money from each allocation that is proposed to be diverted and the proposed use of the diverted funds. A formal budget document includes a printed and publicly distributed budget proposal or recommendation, an introduced bill, or a bill developed during the legislative appropriation process or otherwise during a legislative session."

NEW SECTION. Section 3.  Codification instruction. [Section 1] is intended to be codified as an integral part of Title 82, chapter 4, part 3, and the provisions of Title 82, chapter 4, part 3, apply to [section 1].

NEW SECTION. Section 4.  Effective date. [This act] is effective July 1, 1997.

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