Minn. Stat. § 10A.31
An individual resident of this state who files an income tax return or a renter and homeowner property tax refund return with the commissioner of revenue may designate on their original return that $5 be paid from the general fund of the state into the state elections campaign account. If a husband and wife file a joint return, each spouse may designate that $5 be paid. No individual is allowed to designate $5 more than once in any year. The taxpayer may designate that the amount be paid into the account of a political party or into the general account.
[Repealed by amendment, 1999 c 220 s 39]
The commissioner of revenue must provide on the first page of the income tax form and the renter and homeowner property tax refund return a space for the individual to indicate a wish to pay $5 ($10 if filing a joint return) from the general fund of the state to finance election campaigns. The form must also contain language prepared by the commissioner that permits the individual to direct the state to pay the $5 (or $10 if filing a joint return) to:
Money allocated to each state committee under clause (6) must be deposited in a separate account and must be spent for only those items enumerated in section 10A.275. Money allocated to a state committee under clause (6) must be paid to the committee by the board as it is received in the account on a monthly basis, with payment on the 15th day of the calendar month following the month in which the returns were processed by the Department of Revenue, provided that these distributions would be equal to 90 percent of the amount of money indicated in the Department of Revenue's weekly unedited reports of income tax returns and property tax refund returns processed in the month, as notified by the Department of Revenue to the board. The amounts paid to each state committee are subject to biennial adjustment and settlement at the time of each certification required of the commissioner of revenue under subdivisions 7 and 10. If the total amount of payments received by a state committee for the period reflected on a certification by the Department of Revenue is different from the amount that should have been received during the period according to the certification, each subsequent monthly payment must be increased or decreased to the fullest extent possible until the amount of the overpayment is recovered or the underpayment is distributed.
To ensure that money will be returned to the counties from which it was collected and to ensure that the distribution of money rationally relates to the support for particular parties or for particular candidates within legislative districts, money from the party accounts for legislative candidates must be distributed as provided in this subdivision.
Each candidate for the state senate and state house of representatives whose name is to appear on the ballot in the general election must receive money from the candidate's party account allocated to candidates for the state senate or state house of representatives, whichever applies, according to the following formula:
For each county within the candidate's district, the candidate's share of the dollars designated by taxpayers who resided in that county and credited to the candidate's party account and allocated to that office must be:
The sum of all the county shares calculated in the formula above is the candidate's share of the candidate's party account.
In a year in which an election for the state senate occurs, with respect to votes for candidates for the state senate only, "last general election" means the last general election in which an election for the state senate occurred.
For a party under whose name no candidate's name appeared on the ballot statewide in the last general election, amounts in the party's account must be allocated based on (i) the number of people voting in the last general election in that part of the county in the candidate's district, divided by (ii) the number of the people voting in the entire county in the last general election, multiplied by (iii) the amount in the candidate's party account designated by taxpayers who resided in that county and allocated to that office.
In the first general election after the legislature is redistricted, "the candidate's district" means the newly drawn district and voting data from the last general election must be applied to the area encompassing the newly drawn district, notwithstanding that the area was in a different district in the last general election.
If in a district there was no candidate of a party for the state senate or state house of representatives in the last general election, or if a candidate for the state senate or state house of representatives was unopposed, the vote for that office for that party is the average vote of all the remaining candidates of that party in each county of that district whose votes are included in the sums in clauses (1) and (2). The average vote must be added to the sums in clauses (1) and (2) before the calculation is made for all districts in the county.
As soon as the board has obtained from the secretary of state the results of the primary election, but no later than one week after certification by the State Canvassing Board of the results of the primary, the board must distribute the available money in each party account, as certified by the commissioner of revenue one week before the state primary, to the candidates of that party who have signed a spending limit agreement under section 10A.322 and filed the affidavit of contributions required by section 10A.323, who were opposed in either the primary election or the general election, and whose names are to appear on the ballot in the general election, according to the allocations set forth in subdivisions 5 and 5a. The public subsidy from the party account may not be paid in an amount greater than the expenditure limit of the candidate or the expenditure limit that would have applied to the candidate if the candidate had not been freed from expenditure limits under section 10A.25, subdivision 10.
Money from a party account not distributed to candidates for state senator or representative in any election year must be returned to the general fund of the state, except that the subsidy from the party account an unopposed candidate would otherwise have been eligible to receive must be paid to the state committee of the candidate's political party to be deposited in a special account under subdivision 5, paragraph (b), clause (6), and used for only those items permitted under section 10A.275. Money from a party account not distributed to candidates for other offices in an election year must be returned to the party account for reallocation to candidates as provided in subdivision 5, paragraph (b), in the following year.
If a candidate who is eligible for payment of public subsidy under this section has not filed the report of receipts and expenditures required under section 10A.20 before a primary election, any public subsidy for which that candidate is eligible must be withheld by the board until the candidate complies with the filing requirements of section 10A.20 and the board has sufficient time to review or audit the report. If a candidate who is eligible for public subsidy does not file the report due before the primary election under section 10A.20 by the date that the report of receipts and expenditures filed before the general election is due, that candidate shall not be paid public subsidy for that election.
A candidate who fails to repay money required by the agreement cannot be paid additional public subsidy funds during the current or future election cycles until the entirety of the unexpended funds and any associated collection fees are either repaid to the board or discharged by court action.
[Repealed, 1993 c 318 art 2 s 51]
[Repealed, 1993 c 318 art 2 s 51]
In the event that on the date of either certification by the commissioner of revenue as provided in subdivision 6 or 7, less than 98 percent of the tax returns have been processed, the commissioner of revenue must certify to the board by December 1 the amount accumulated in each account since the previous certification. By December 15, the board must distribute to each candidate according to the allocations in subdivisions 5 and 5a the amounts to which the candidates are entitled.
A distribution to a candidate must be in the form of a check made "payable to the campaign fund of ......(name of candidate)......."
Money accumulated after the final certification must be kept in the respective accounts for distribution in the next general election year.
For the purposes of this section, a write-in candidate is a candidate only upon complying with sections 10A.322 and 10A.323.
[Repealed by amendment, 1999 c 220 s 39]
Minn. Stat. § 10A.31
1974 c 470 s 31; 1975 c 271 s 6; 1976 c 307 s 26-33; 1978 c 463 s 87-95; 1980 c 587 art 3 s 4-6; 1981 c 343 s 1; 1982 c 523 art 5 s 1; 1983 c 216 art 1 s 2; 1984 c 502 art 2 s 1, 2; 1984 c 514 art 2 s 1; 1985 c 248 s 3; 1Sp1985 c 14 art 1 s 1, 2; 1986 c 444; 1987 c 268 art 1 s 1-3; 1988 c 686 art 1 s 42; 1Sp1989 c 1 art 10 s 1; 1990 c 480 art 5 s 1; 1991 c 199 art 2 s 1; 1991 c 349 s 19, 20; 1992 c 513 art 3 s 20; 1993 c 13 art 2 s 1; 1993 c 318 art 2 s 33-36; 1Sp1993 c 3 s 3, 4; 1996 c 471 art 1 s 1; 1997 c 202 art 2 s 63; 1999 c 220 s 39,50; 2000 c 467 s 1; 1Sp2001 c 10 art 18 s 1, 2; 2002 c 363 s 38; 2004 c 277 s 1; 2005 c 156 art 6 s 9, 10; 2009 c 101 art 2s 18; 2010 c 184 s 1; 2010 c 327 s 20; 2013 c 138 art 3 s 10; art 4 s 3,4