Result, rejected
Voters rejected the charter amendment. This proposal does not create a utility commission. 673 yes (31.40%), 1,470 no (68.60%), all four precincts reporting, in unofficial results reported through November 6, 2026 at 9:58 a.m. Central. Minnesota Secretary of State
This guide was written before the vote and is kept as written. City and school district boards canvass local results November 6 to 13. The State Canvassing Board meets November 19.
Bills and city money
What the electric utility sends to the rest of city government, and what a change could mean for one household.
Luverne's electric utility sent $624,330 to other city funds in 2024 and $261,675 in 2025, on top of an $80,000 economic development contribution and a franchise fee. Replacing all of the 2025 transfers with property tax, and cutting rates by the same amount, would add about $100 a year to the city tax on a $250,000 home and take about $40 off its electric bill at 900 kWh a month. How much money moves, and who decides, is the core of the ballot argument.
Key facts
- Luverne, Minnesota’s electric utility supported other city funds with about $1.08 million in 2024, counting transfers, the $80,000 development contribution, and the franchise fee. (2024 audit, p. 51)
- The city reports an electric franchise fee of about $380,000 for 2024. The documented rate of 0.45 cents per kilowatt-hour would produce about $332,000 on 2024 sales. (Resolution 52-23)
- The electric utility took in $9,419,760 in operating revenue in 2025 and sold 74,106,536 kilowatt-hours. (2025 audit, p. 49)
- Luverne’s general fund took in $6,687,775 in 2025, including $2,938,600 in property tax and $1,742,967 in state local government aid. (2025 audit)
What money are people arguing about?
Three separate payments from the electric fund. They are transfers to other city funds, a contribution to the Economic Development Authority, and a franchise fee.
Transfers are the audited “transfers out” line, money moved from the electric fund to other city funds. Total support adds the $80,000 EDA contribution and the electric franchise fee, which City Code § 55.17 requires the utility to pay per kilowatt-hour.2025 audit, p. 71City Code § 55.17
Mixing the two measures is how the same year gets described as $624,330 by one side and more than $1 million by the other. This page keeps them apart.
What could change for my household?
If transfers shrank, the city tax on a home could go up and the electric bill could go down. Which is bigger depends on your home value, your electricity use, and choices nobody has made yet.
The calculator starts from a $250,000 owner-occupied home using 900 kWh a month, with no change to the transfer. Enter your own numbers, then move the transfer slider to try a scenario. Nothing you enter leaves this page.
Estimated market value on your latest property-tax statement.
kWh. Use your average if you know it, or enter a recent month.
How much less the electric utility sends to other city funds each year.
No change. The utility keeps sending the city $261,675 a year (2025 transfer).
Under these assumptions
- City property tax
- $0a year
- Electric bill
- $0a year
- Net household change
- $0a year
Scenario, not forecast. The amendment itself sets none of these amounts. The electric bill result assumes the rate cut is the same amount per kWh for every customer, with monthly base charges unchanged.
Additional assumptions
100%, $0 a year added to the city levy.
A commission, if created, would decide this. It could also keep the money for repairs, debt, or reserves.
100%, $0 a year in lower rates for all customers.
How this was calculated
- Transfer change. $0 of the utility's audited 2025 transfer to other city funds ($261,675).
- City property taxes. The city now collects $3,789,392 a year in property tax (taxes payable 2026). Adding $0 makes that $3,789,392, a 0.0% increase.
- Your share of it. State rules convert market value into a much smaller taxable number called tax capacity. For a $250,000 home, after the homestead exclusion, that number is $2,259.50. The combined tax capacity of all Luverne property is $5,897,742. That is not the levy or the city budget. Your home pays that fraction of the added tax, $2,259.50 ÷ $5,897,742 × $0 = $0.
- Your electric bill. $0 in lower rates, spread over the 74,106,536 kWh the utility sold in 2025, is 0.000¢ per kWh. At 10,800 kWh a year, that is $0. This spreads the cut by kWh, the same cents off every kWh for homes and businesses, and leaves base charges alone. A cut of the same percent off every bill would give homes a somewhat larger share, because homes pay more per kWh than the average customer.
- Both benchmark years use the same current tax base (payable 2026) and 2025 electricity sales.
The amendment does not specify a fallback transfer amount. The published authorizing documents do not establish which existing payments would continue or at what amount. The calculator counts only the city's share of your property tax, before refunds, and spreads any rate cut evenly per kWh.State tax data, payable 2026Minnesota Department of Revenue2025 audit, p. 200
Ending the 2025 transfers and the $80,000 EDA contribution together ($341,675), replacing all of it with property tax, and returning all of it through lower rates would mean about +$130 in city tax and about −$50 on the electric bill, about +$80 a year net. The franchise fee is left out because no proposal ends it.
That larger illustration combines 2025 payments, the payable-2026 tax base, and 2025 electricity sales. It holds electricity use, operating costs, capital plans, and debt unchanged.
Renters and institutions don't get this tax bill directly, but taxes on rental and business property can still reach them through rents and prices.
How much is it, and what did it pay for?
Transfers fell 58%, from $624,330 in 2024 to $261,675 in 2025. The city’s transfer table shows most of the 2018–2024 increase went to projects.
| Electric fund payment | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Transfers to other city funds | $624,330 | $261,675 |
| EDA contribution | $80,000 | $80,000 |
| Electric franchise fee | About $380,000 | Not verified |
| Total support | About $1.08 million | Not verified |
Transfers and the EDA contribution are audited. The franchise fee is the city's round figure. The audit books electric and gas franchise receipts together, and the 2025 electric fee has not been published. At the documented 2024 rate of $0.0045 per kWh, all 73,828 MWh sold that year would produce about $332,000, less than the city's figure. The actual 2024 electric fee has not been published, so neither number is confirmed.2025 audit, p. 49City MPA report 2025, p. 7Resolution 52-23, p. 92024 audit, p. 196
Transfers were 7.1% of the electric fund's operating revenue in 2024 and 2.8% in 2025.2024 audit, p. 512025 audit, p. 49
The city's benefit report uses a broader four-year measure, transfers plus the franchise fee, and reports 15.5% of revenue for 2021–2024, compared with a 5.1% national median. That is a historical comparison, not the current transfer rate, and the table above keeps each payment separate. For context, 2024 total support was about 12.3% of operating revenue. The 2025 total is not verified because the audit combines its electric and gas franchise receipts.Missouri River Energy Services / City of LuverneAmerican Public Power AssociationCity of LuverneCity of Luverne
The city administrator uses a similar broad measure (transfers, franchise fees, and the EDA contribution) for 2023–2026, and it comes to 9.5% of electric revenue. That window starts after the 2021–2022 peak but still includes project transfers in 2023 and 2024, and its 2026 figures are an estimate. The city reports $1.63 million in franchise fees for the four years combined, without a yearly breakdown. Its figures of 7.2% for 2025–2026 and 9.3% for the average MRES member could not be checked. No breakdown or source was given.City administrator
Transfers out of the electric fund, year by year
Money moved from the electric fund to other city funds. The 2022 peak ($1.17M, about 15% of that year's operating revenue) paid for city projects, not the power plant. By the city's own table, it went to the general fund, the Luverne Loop, capital equipment, the daycare remodel, the public works parking lot, and pool expansion and debt. The 2025 figure ($262K) is the lowest since 2017. Transfers into the electric fund were $0 in every State Auditor year (2015–23).
What the electric money paid for, 2016–2026
The city's table groups eleven years of electric-fund transfers and EDA contributions by use. It is not an audit, and the city describes its 2026 column as an estimate based on the first three quarters.City table by yearCity table of usesCity administrator
| Used for | Electric fund, 2016–2026 |
|---|---|
| General fund payment in lieu of taxes, plus extra in 2018–19 for the Uithoven Addition | $1,140,000 |
| Economic development (the EDA and its loan funds) | $1,263,370 |
| Equipment, streets, and the public works lot | $1,720,000 |
| Luverne Loop trail (the city’s local match) | $1,185,000 |
| Childcare center (remodel and bond payments) | $951,925 |
| Pool (expansion and bond payments) | $486,143 |
| Pool remodel, land, and daycare building | $170,000 |
| Total | $6,916,438 |
The table lists $341,675 for 2025 and $338,810 for 2026, close to 2017's $325,000. The 2025 amount is confirmed by the audit. Neither column includes a general-fund or project transfer. Both consist of the EDA contribution and debt-service payments for the childcare center and pool.City table by yearCity table of uses2025 audit, p. 49
How does that compare with other cities?
Luverne’s 2024 transfers were 7.1% of electric revenue, fifth highest in this 13-city comparison.
| City | Who runs the utility | Share of electric revenue |
|---|---|---|
| Moorhead | Appointed commission | 21.6%Moorhead Public Service |
| Granite Falls (2023) | Council, with an advisory commission | 11.7%Minnesota Office of the State Auditor |
| St. James (2023) | Council | 10.5%Minnesota Office of the State Auditor |
| Jackson | Council-supervised commission | 8.7%City of Jackson |
| Luverne | Council (today) | 7.1%City of Luverne |
| Buffalo | Council through 2025, appointed commission from 2026 | 5.6%City of Buffalo |
| New Ulm | Appointed commission | 4.8%New Ulm Public Utilities Commission |
| Litchfield | Council | 4.5%City of Litchfield |
| Fairmont | Council, on advice of an appointed commission | 3.2%City of Fairmont |
| Worthington | Appointed commission | 3.2%City of Worthington |
| Austin | Elected commission | 3.2%Austin Utilities |
| Windom (2023) | Appointed commission | 3.1%Minnesota Office of the State Auditor |
| Marshall | Appointed commission | 2.5%Marshall Municipal Utilities |
Money each electric utility paid into its city's own funds, including any payment in lieu of taxes, divided by electric operating revenue, 2024 unless marked. Franchise fees, EDA payments, and transfers that cover the utility's own bonds are left out for every city. Counting Luverne's franchise fee, at the city's round $380,000, would raise its share to about 11.4%. The cited peer records do not identify another franchise fee. Compare other cities has every Minnesota municipal electric utility.
Is one system harder on lower-income households?
Paying through electric bills probably is, somewhat. Electric bills rise little with income, while property tax rises with home value. This is a separate question from whether costs shift between homes and businesses.
Two neighbors using the same electricity pay the same bill whatever their homes are worth, but the more valuable home pays more property tax. The table shows what replacing all 2025 transfers with property tax would mean for two homes each using 900 kWh a month.
| Home value | City tax | Electric bill | Net |
|---|---|---|---|
| $200,000 | +$76 | −$38 | +$38 |
| $400,000 | +$173 | −$38 | +$135 |
Home value is only a rough stand-in for income, but federal survey data point the same way. Midwest households earning $150,000 or more use about 1.6 times the electricity of those earning $20,000 to $40,000. The state's homestead refund can give back part of a tax increase to some lower-income homeowners. Electric bills have no comparable refund. The committee calls the current system regressive for this reason.U.S. Energy Information AdministrationMinnesota Department of RevenueCharter Amendment Committee
Do homes or businesses pay more of each?
Homes are a larger share of the property-tax base than of electric revenue, so moving money from bills to taxes would shift some of the cost toward homes. The categories don’t line up exactly, so the size of the shift can’t be pinned down.
| Share of electric revenue, 2024 | Share of city tax base, 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Homes | 29% to 42% | 54% owner-occupied, plus 10% rentals |
| Commercial and industrial | 56% | 35% |
Electric shares are from the city's 2024 state filing. Homes with electric heat are counted in an “all other” row with other accounts, so the home share is at least the low figure and at most the high one, which counts that whole row as homes. Electric “commercial” includes schools and government buildings, which pay no property tax. Tax shares use class totals before tax-increment financing and power-line capacity are removed. The exact class split of the final taxable levy base is not published.Commerce annual report, 2024State tax data, payable 2026
How a rate cut divides between homes and other customers depends on its form. The same cents off every kWh divides by kWh sold, which gives homes 24% to 39% of the cut. The same percent off every bill divides by revenue, which gives homes 29% to 42%, because homes pay more per kWh than the average customer. The calculator above uses the per-kWh method and leaves base charges alone. The class example in Dan's analysis uses the percent-of-bill method, the one more favorable to homes, and its $1,000,000 is a round illustration, not the $261,675 transferred in 2025. The amendment sets no rate cut of either kind.Commerce annual report, 2024
The largest single taxpayer, Lineage Logistics, held 11.1% of the city's tax capacity for taxes payable 2025.2025 audit, p. 186
What else is in the electric fund’s books?
Bond debt that stays with the city under either system, and loans to other city funds that a split would have to settle.
Debt. The electric fund owed $13,840,000 on two revenue-bond issues at the end of 2025, payable only from electric revenue, not taxes. The city promised to keep net revenue at least 125% of annual debt payments until 2051, and whoever sets rates inherits that promise. At the forum the city called these bonds general obligations. Their official statements say they are not.City of LuverneCity of Luverne / MSRB EMMARock County Star Herald
Loans to other funds. The fund has lent $2,408,010 to the Sharkee's–Merts tax-increment project (no public rate) and $870,946 to the sewer fund at 0.5%. It also held $5,193,030 in unrestricted cash and investments.City of Luverne
Hockey club loans. The city's separate table lists an electric-fund share of $93,600 for the 2012 Blue Mound Ice Arena expansion and an estimated $101,666.67 for a newer chiller loan. These are loans, not part of the $6.9 million transfer total. The table gives no interest rate, repayment schedule, or current balance.City table of uses
The general fund. In 2025 it took in $6.69M, including $2.94M in property tax, $1.74M in state aid, and $559K in electric and gas franchise fees. State aid is set by a formula that ignores utility transfers, so it would not rise if transfers fell.City of LuverneMN Revisor / House Research / MN Dept. of Revenue