Serving the Iron Range and northeastern Minnesota

Taconite Economic Development Fund

In 1992, the Minnesota Legislature established the Taconite Economic Development Fund (TEDF) to encourage capital investments in northeast Minnesota taconite plants. From 1993 through 2006, the TEDF program has reinvested more than $110 million back into northeast Minnesota taconite plants for new equipment, facility improvements and research and development in new mining technologies. In turn, these dollars have leveraged an additional $83,091,664 million from the taconite producers for a total investment in northeast Minnesota of more than $195 million.

Under current law, 30.1-cents of the $2.203 tax paid for each ton of taconite pellets produced is set aside in a special account administered by the Iron Range Resources. The TEDF funds are then rebated back to each company for capital improvement projects. This rebate, commonly referred to as the investment tax credit, was made permanent by the 2001 Legislature.