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Luverne’s utility questionLuverne, Minnesota · City Question No. 1, November 3, 2026

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.

Luverne, Minnesota

Sources and limits

What each figure comes from, what is assumed, and what the public records cannot answer. Updated November 5, 2026.

Primary records come first, meaning audits, the amendment, city code, and state filings. Statements from the forum, letters, and news are attributed to whoever made them, never adopted as findings.

Which figures are checked?

FigureValueStatusWhere it comes from
Transfers, 2024$624,330Source checked2024 audit, page 51, Electric column, Transfers OutOpen
Transfers, 2025$261,675Source checked2025 audit, page 49, Electric column, Transfers OutOpen
EDA contribution, 2024$80,000Source checked2024 audit, page 51, Electric column, Contributions to component unitOpen
EDA contribution, 2025$80,000Source checked2025 audit, page 49, Electric column, Contributions to component unitOpen
Electric franchise fee, 2024About $380,000ApproximateCity MPA report 2025, page 7 (round figure, not itemized in the audit)Open
Electric franchise fee, 2025Not verifiedNot confirmedNot itemized in the 2025 audit. General fund electric + gas franchise receipts were $558,515Open
Electricity sold, 202574,106,536 kWhSource checked2025 audit, page 200, Kilowatt hours soldOpen
City levy, payable 2025$3,566,592Source checkedCertified 2026 levies list, page 11, Luverne city, 2025 column. The 2025 audit’s levy table shows $3,556,592, $10,000 less, and the records do not explain the differenceOpen
City tax capacity, payable 2025$5,541,025Source checked2025 audit, page 183, Table 7Open
City levy, payable 2026$3,789,392Source checkedCertified 2026 levies list, page 11, Luverne city, 2026 columnOpen
City tax capacity, payable 2026$5,897,742Source checkedDOR property tax history data, sheet CityTown, Luverne city, payable 2026, Taxable NTCOpen
Commission seats, terms, three-vote rule—Source checkedAmendment §§ 2(a)–(d), 2(i), 4(a)Open

What does the calculator assume?

These are modeling choices, not facts about what would happen.

  • An illustrative owner-occupied homestead worth $250,000 (tax capacity $2259.50) using 900 kWh a month. Not a median. Readers can change both.
  • Tax capacity follows the homestead market-value exclusion and class 1a rates (1% up to $500,000, 1.25% above).Minn. Stat. § 273.13DOR workbook
  • The city tax base is payable 2026: levy $3,789,392 spread on taxable tax capacity of $5,897,742, a city rate of about 64.25%. Only the city's share of the tax bill is modeled, before income-based refunds.
  • Lower rates are spread evenly across 2025 kWh sold. A real rate change could fall differently on different customer classes.
  • Electricity use, other utility costs, capital plans, and debt are held constant. The franchise fee is per kWh, so it does not change with rates.
  • Reduction amounts use audited 2025 transfers as a dated benchmark, not a forecast.

What do the public records not establish?

  • How shared staff pay is split among funds. The budget says the general fund carries 37% of the administrator’s and clerk’s pay and the utilities carry “varying percentages.” The split by fund is not published, so it does not establish the committee’s figure that 42% of the clerk’s pay comes from electric.
  • The 2025 electric franchise fee. The 2025 audit lumps electric and gas franchise fees together ($558,515). Until the electric part is known, 2025 total support is not shown. Budget books and the city’s benefit report also give different franchise-fee amounts for 2021–2023.
  • Gaps between the city’s transfer table and other records. After removing the EDA contribution so the measures match, the city table is $243,370 above State Auditor transfers in 2016, $200,000 below in 2018, and $170,000 above in 2021. It is $43,370 below the 2024 audit because it omits a childcare-fund transfer. The city’s later 2023–2026 table uses the audited 2024 figure without explaining the gap. The city describes 2026 as an estimate, but the same email calls 2025–2026 actuals.
  • Who repays the childcare and pool bonds. The city’s table shows the electric and other utility funds paying toward these bonds each year. Whether that covers the whole payment, and how it relates to the property taxes pledged to them, has not been documented.
  • The current generator capacity and MRES payment. The posted 2023 agreement is unsigned and lists 9,300 kW by unit, including 3,500 kW from the 1967 generator. No current unit-by-unit list has been published, and the audits do not itemize annual capacity receipts. Without those figures, whether the payments will cover the 30-year bond debt cannot be tested, and the payment attributable to the rebuilt units cannot be separated from capacity the city already had.
  • Luverne’s electric revenue and kWh. Luverne’s state filing reports $421,897 more electric revenue than its 2024 audit, and its federal filing reports more kWh than either. Until the city’s billing records explain it, no single Luverne price per kWh is given.
  • Complete bills for other utilities. The Public Utilities Commission approved Xcel’s 2026 increase of 3.4% in June 2026 and affirmed its decision at an October 1 hearing after petitions for reconsideration, but Xcel’s published rate book did not yet show the final residential charges when this was checked. Sioux Valley Energy’s 2026 rate increase page lists no separate power-cost charge. Luverne’s monthly power-cost adjustment has not been confirmed. The Rates page compares base and energy charges only.
  • Peer payment rows with gaps. Hutchinson’s row is withheld because its electric-only source is no longer online. The city’s 2026 budget shows a combined electric and gas payment of $1,942,628 for 2024, with no split between the two. St. James, Granite Falls, and Windom use 2023 state data that does not show which funds received the money.
  • Two amendment questions for a lawyer. Whether amendment § 1(b) or § 3(b) controls utility contracts, and whether a charter commission triggers the MRES contract’s 90-day notice for transferring control of the electric system.

What has been corrected?

Changes made in the September 24, October 3, October 12, and October 13, 2026 revisions.

  • The explanation of how utility money reaches the city was rewritten. Earlier pages said the commission alone would decide how much money was left for the city. The amendment requires the payment formula to be approved by both the commission and the council (§ 3(i)).
  • Commission membership was corrected. The council does not appoint two members “each year.” The city seat is the city administrator unless the council appoints one of its members (one-year term only in that case), and the large-customer seat has a three-year term.
  • The $332-a-year median-home figure was retired. It paired a 2024 total that included an approximate figure with a different year’s tax base. The household calculator replaces it.
  • The 2024 total support is now shown as about $1.08 million, not $1,084,330, because the franchise-fee part is a round figure.
  • The “who pays” comparison was replaced with two separate tables. The earlier version mixed 2019 federal class data with an estimated tax-base split and counted institutions twice.
  • The rates page’s profit comparison was taken down because it mixed accounting scopes between cities.
  • Statements that the amendment has “no conflict rules” were replaced with the precise point. It adds no rule specific to the large-customer seat, and existing law still applies.
  • The 2014 Hutchinson industrial-rate example was removed from public conclusions until a primary record is available. Hutchinson’s council veto (four-fifths vote within 30 days) is kept as a difference from Luverne.
  • The signed analysis was rewritten to engage the strongest case for the amendment. It no longer treats the cost of a general manager as a reason to vote no, because the amendment allows a contracted or shared manager.
  • The start page said the council keeps approval of contracts. That was too broad. The commission can make utility contracts, and council approval is required for specified matters, including new bonds, real-estate deals, and contracts longer than ten years (§ 3(b), § 3(f)).
  • The 2025 franchise-fee cell on Bills and city money displayed “$558” instead of $558,515 because of a formatting bug. Fixed.
  • The rates page no longer calls a 750 kWh bill “typical.” It is an example, not a measured Luverne average.
  • “Only another citywide vote” was corrected to “another charter amendment,” which Minnesota law also allows by unanimous ordinance on the charter commission’s recommendation.
  • September 24 audit. The peer-payment table had filled Marshall’s, New Ulm’s, and Austin’s 2022 and 2023 cells with 2024 values, and mixed transfers with expense payments. It was rebuilt on one measure with a year for every row. Hutchinson now uses electric-only revenue, and Luverne’s row no longer counts the EDA payment.
  • September 24 verification pass. Jackson’s row no longer counts its $121,001 transfer to debt-service funds (the electric fund’s share of its own bond payments), which moved it from 10.9% to 8.7%. The other rows count no debt-service transfers. Hutchinson’s 5.8% was withdrawn because the electric-only source could not be reopened. Each row now lists the payments counted and not counted.
  • September 24 audit. The bill comparison scaled average prices to 750 kWh and showed an estimated Xcel “all-in” bill of $131–135. It now shows base charge plus energy charge from posted tariffs, labeled as not complete bills, with Sioux Valley’s town and rural rates and St. James added.
  • September 24 follow-up. Luverne’s blended 2024 price had been hidden from the peer chart and the compare page while other utilities’ filings were shown as submitted. It is now shown as filed (10.76¢), with its federal customer count, and the kWh difference is stated in a note instead.
  • September 24 audit. Luverne’s 11.55¢ figure was withdrawn as a “reconciled” price. It now appears only as the explicitly labeled state-filing measure. The peer chart and compare page use Luverne’s federally filed 10.76¢, like the other cities, and disclose the unexplained kWh difference.
  • September 24 audit. Growth figures were corrected. Customers grew about 1.6%, not 0.5%, and the earlier 9.49¢ starting price rested on an audit kWh figure larger than the power the city bought that year.
  • September 24 audit. The history page gave the MRES contract end as 2056. It runs through January 1, 2057. The approved extension to 2067 takes effect January 2, 2027.
  • September 24 audit. The description of the Kwoka (2002) study reversed its finding about industrial users. Corrected, with a note that it studied state regulators, not city utility boards.
  • September 24 audit. The capacity contract’s $2 incentive was described as applying to Luverne. The posted contract limits it to units commissioned after June 1, 2023. The 15–18-year payback estimate and the “$30 per meter per month” figure were removed.
  • September 24 audit. Buffalo’s page said no term of Luverne’s commission could change without a charter amendment. Several can be changed by ordinance or council action. The page now lists them.
  • September 24 audit. The sample of Minnesota utility bodies was expanded to 59 cities and is now listed by name.
  • October 12 update. The compare page no longer shows the withdrawn 11.55¢ price. It now explains why a price figured from the 2024 audit (about 11.91¢) is higher than the federally filed 10.76¢.
  • October 12 update. The 2024 franchise fee is the city’s round $380,000. At the documented rate of $0.0045 per kWh, 2024 electricity sales would produce about $332,000. Both pages that cite the fee now say so, and the actual 2024 fee is still not published.
  • October 12 update. The compare page’s percentile labels read “71th” and similar. They now use correct ordinals.
  • October 12 update. The home share of electric revenue on Bills and city money is now shown as a range, 29% to 42% for 2024, because homes with electric heat are reported with other accounts.
  • October 13 update. Dan’s analysis compared 2024 total support (about $1.08 million, including the franchise fee no proposal ends) with the 2026 levy and said the city could not close a gap that size with budget cuts. It now uses the 2025 transfers and EDA contribution, $341,675, about 9 percent of the 2026 levy, and the budget-cuts sentence was removed.
  • October 13 update. Dan’s analysis said other Minnesota cities avoid a payment deadlock. It now says some do, and that Hutchinson’s and Worthington’s charters also require both bodies to agree on transfers with no default.
  • October 13 update. The arguments page showed a chart and a 7.9% figure for Luverne’s 2025 payments that rested on a budgeted franchise fee, while other pages say the 2025 total is not verified. The chart also counted Fairmont’s EDA payment, labeled Windom’s 2023 data as 2025, and marked Jackson’s council-supervised utility as a commission. The chart was removed. The peer comparison now uses the same measure as Bills and city money.
  • October 13 update. The larger household illustration on Bills and city money used 2024 total support, including the franchise fee, with the payable 2026 tax base. It now uses the 2025 transfers and EDA contribution.
  • October 13 update. The franchise-fee key fact implied the documented rate produces $380,000. The city reports about $380,000. The documented rate would produce about $332,000.
  • October 13 update. The arguments page now checks the city’s claims on general manager pay and wholesale power, and adds the committee’s September 24 response.
  • October 3 update. The transfers chart said the 2022 peak coincided with plant construction. The city’s 2016–2026 table shows that money went to a parking lot, the Luverne Loop, the daycare remodel, and the pool.

Every document

144 records, grouped by kind.

City record (43)
Audited financial report (13)
City publication (8)
State Auditor data (10)
Federal energy data (6)
State record (7)
Statute / case law (14)
News reporting (17)
Letter / opinion (4)
Secondary source (22)