Environmental Impact Statement - radioactive monticello

Environmental Impacts of Operation
Tax revenue can affect land use because it enables local jurisdictions to be able to provide the
public services (e.g., transportation and utilities) necessary to support development.
Section 4.7.4.1 of the GElS states that the assessment of tax-driven land use impacts during
the license renewal term should consider (1) the size of the plant's payments relative to the
community's total revenues, (2) the nature of the community's existing land use pattern, and
(3) the extent to which the community already has public services in place to support and guide
development. If the plant's tax payments are projected to be small relative to the community's
total revenue, tax-driven land use changes during the plant's license renewal term would be
SMALL, especially where the community has pre-established patterns of development and has
provided adequate public services to support and guide development. Section 4.7.2.1 of the
GElS states that if tax payments by the plant owner are less than 10 percent of the taxing
jurisdictions revenue, the significance level would be SMALL. If the plant's tax payments are
projected to be medium to large relative to the community's total revenue, new tax-driven land
use changes would be MODERATE. If the plant's tax payments are projected to be a dominant
source of the community's total revenue, new tax-driven land use changes would be LARGE.
This would be especially true where the community has no pre-established pattern of
development or has not provided adequate public services to support and guide development.
Northern States Power Company (NSP) is assessed annual property taxes for the Monticello
site by Wright.County, the City of Monticello, School District 882, and the Monticello-Big Lake
Hospital District. NSP is also assessed the State General Tax. Property taxes are paid directly
to Wright County, which in turn distributes the money to the aforementioned taxing jurisdictions..
Property taxes fund local government services such as highway maintenance, education, public
health, public safety, public libraries, and various other social services (NMC 2005a).
From 1994 to 2001, NSP's largest annual property tax contributions for Monticello went to
School District 882. Payments during the period from 1998 to 2002 decreased by 70.2 percent
as a result of the passage of a tax bill by the State in 2001 which replaced the State Assessed
School Levy with the State General Tax. Assessments under the State General Tax are paid
into the State General Fund and redistributed by a State-determined formula to school districts
statewide in part based on student numbers. The State Assessed School Levy had been
included in School District 882 payments prior to year 2002. Contributions to School District
882 accounted for 20.4 percent of the school district's total revenues and 18.5 percent of the
total operating budget in 1999. By 2002, payments for Monticello represented a much smaller
percentage of both the school district's total revenues and total operating budget, 5.2 percent
and 5.5 percent, respectively (NMC 2005a).
Annual property tax payments to Wright County decreased from approximately 3.2 to 2.0 million
dollars from 1998 to 2002, a 36.9 percent decrease. These contributions represented 6.9 to
3.4 percent of the county's total annual revenues during the period.
Annual payments to the hospital district decreased 30 percent during the period from 1998 to
2003. These payments represented an increasingly smaller percentage of total revenues from
1998 to 2002, 1.4 to 0.5 percent. When viewed in relation to total Wright County property tax
August 2006 4-33 NUREG-1437, Supplement 26 1