81-15,113.01.

Community Improvements Cash Fund; created; surcharge; distribution; allocation; investment; legislative study.

(1) There is hereby created the Community Improvements Cash Fund which shall be under the direction of the department. The Central Interstate Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compact Commission shall annually through 1998 remit to the department the funds received from the states belonging to the Central Interstate Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compact as compensation paid to the host state. When the facility begins operation, the developer shall levy, collect, and remit to the department a surcharge on the rates charged to the users of the facility which is sufficient to raise two million dollars per year together with any adjustments made by the department pursuant to this section. The department shall remit such surcharge to the State Treasurer who shall credit it to the Community Improvements Cash Fund. On October 1, 1990, and each October 1 thereafter, the department shall adjust the amount to be remitted by the developer by an amount equal to the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index or, if publication of the Consumer Price Index is discontinued, a comparable index selected by the director. Any money in the fund available for investment shall be invested by the state investment officer pursuant to the Nebraska Capital Expansion Act and the Nebraska State Funds Investment Act.

(2) The department shall distribute money from the fund as follows:

(a) Prior to final site selection, three hundred thousand dollars per year shall be allocated for public purposes to be divided among the communities that are under active consideration to host the facility as provided in subsection (3) of this section;

(b) After the final site has been selected and until the facility is operational, three hundred thousand dollars per year shall be allocated for public purposes as provided in subsection (3) of this section. Acceptance of the funds distributed pursuant to this subdivision or subdivision (a) of this subsection shall in no way affect the siting process; and

(c) Once the facility is operational and during the operational life of the facility, the total amount in the fund shall be allocated each year for public purposes as provided in subsection (3) of this section.

(3) Money distributed pursuant to subdivisions (2)(a), (b), and (c) of this section shall be allocated as follows:

(a) Fifty percent of such money shall be distributed to incorporated municipalities which lie totally or partially within ten kilometers of the facility or the proposed facility based on the ratio of the population of the particular incorporated municipality to the total population of all such incorporated municipalities as determined by the latest federal census; and

(b) Fifty percent of such money shall be distributed to the county treasurer of the county where the facility is located or proposed to be located to be distributed to each political subdivision which levied property taxes on the property where the facility is located or proposed to be located. The money shall be distributed on the basis of the ratio of the total amount of taxes levied by each political subdivision to the total amount of property taxes levied by all such political subdivisions on such property based on the amounts stated in the most recent certificate of taxes levied submitted by each county to the Property Tax Administrator pursuant to section 77-1613.01.

(4) The Natural Resources Committee of the Legislature shall conduct a study to establish a formula for the equitable distribution of the funds specified in subdivision (2)(c) of this section. The committee shall hold public hearings necessary to carry out the purposes of the study.

(5) The State Treasurer shall transfer the entire balance in the Community Improvements Cash Fund, including any investment income credited to the fund, to the General Fund as soon as possible after August 15, 2005.