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Bill would let school cooperatives share arena operating levies, sponsors say
Summary
Cloquet superintendent and sponsor told the committee that current Minnesota law lets a single district levy for arena operating costs but does not allow co-ops to levy for shared programs; House File 1258 seeks a minor statutory change to let co-ops spread costs across participating districts.
A bill to let cooperating school districts share levy authority for ice arena operating costs drew support from northern Minnesota superintendents at a March 25 Education Finance Committee hearing.
Representative Dotseth introduced House File 1258 and called as a remote testifier Dr. Michael Carey, superintendent of Cloquet Public Schools. Carey said current state law permits a single school district that operates an ice arena to levy for the difference between arena operating costs and earned revenue, but that cooperative programs that share an arena or a cooperative hockey program cannot access that levy across the cooperative. He described the requested change as "a very minor edit" to allow a cooperative of districts to create an agreement to share operating costs and, if needed, access the levy authority.
Committee members asked about contractual details, including what would happen if a district later chose to withdraw from a cooperative agreement. Chair and members discussed including language to require cooperative agreements to address dissolution, maintenance obligations and cost-sharing so future disputes would be uncommon. Dr. Carey said Cloquet currently collaborates with Esko and Carlton on hockey and in Cloquet's case the arena is owned by the city; the proposed change would help co-ops manage annual upkeep and, if needed in the long term, support future capital plans.
Representative Dotseth said she would work offline to draft additional language addressing separation concerns and the chair laid House File 1258 over for possible inclusion in an omnibus bill.
Witnesses: Dr. Michael Carey (Cloquet Public Schools) and Representative Dotseth (bill sponsor).
