A weekly message from your Senator
Dear Constituents and Friends,
This week we witnessed Governor Dayton’s final State of the State address in a joint session of the Legislature. Finally, today we received the Governor’s supplemental budget (click here for more information), which contains his tax recommendations regarding federal conformity with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) (click here for more information). In his recommendations he includes tax cuts for over 2 million Minnesotans in addition to some business conformity provisions. Notably, the proposal moves away from using federal taxable income, replacing it with federal adjusted gross income.
Minnesotans would keep their current standard deduction and personal and dependent exemptions for state tax purposes. This proposal will maintain existing tax benefits for Minnesota that are available under current Minnesota law, including charitable contribution deductions, unreimbursed employee expense deductions, and casualty losses, among others. This proposal would also introduce a new $60 non-refundable tax credit per each individual on a taxpayer’s return, giving 1.9 million returns an average of $117 in tax relief. The proposal recommends conforming to many of the changes for business taxes in the 2017 federal tax bill, including Section 179 with no “addback,” bonus depreciation expansion with 80% addback, and accounting method options, among others. The proposal does not recommend conformity to the repeal of the corporate AMT, the estate tax exclusion increase, or the 20% deduction for pass-through income. The Governor also recommends updating Minnesota’s tax code to the internal revenue code changes in the enactment of the Bipartisan Budget Act of February 2018 to extend relief to thousands of Minnesota families who take deductions for
tuition, mortgage insurance premiums, and mortgage debt forgiveness.
Finally, the Governor recommends restoring the cigarette and moist snuff tax indexing to ensure that the tax keeps up with the pace of inflation. This proposal also restores the maximum tax on premium cigars to its previous level of $3.50 per cigar. These tobacco tax provisions are effective July 1, 2018.
We will promptly begin deliberating all options in the Senate Tax Committee to protect Minnesotans from any impact the TCJA would have on individuals, their families, and to ensure tax fairness.
Sincerely,
Melisa
Bipartisan solution to help reduce gun violence
A group of DFL and Republican senators held a press conference March 12 to announce an agreement to support criminal background checks and mandatory reporting of lost or stolen firearms.
The first bill requires background checks for all firearm transfers, except those on a list of exclusions, such as transfers between close family members, temporary loans, or between law enforcement officers. The bill requires private sales to occur in front of a federally licensed firearms dealer after a standard background check. According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Minnesota has over 1,440 federally-licensed gun dealers, almost twice the number of post offices, and 98.9% of the population lives within 10 miles of a licensed dealer.
The second bill prevents straw buyers from circumventing background checks, by requiring that all lost or stolen firearms be reported to local law enforcement. Straw buyers pretend to buy guns for themselves, while intending to sell the weapons, at a premium price, to people who cannot legally buy a firearm. Right now, straw buyers can lie about ‘losing’ the guns they are actually selling, which effectively allows criminals to buy guns and prevents us from punishing their illegal suppliers. This bill puts an end to that.
The frequency of mass school shootings is rising rapidly: more than 188 mass school shootings have occurred since the fatal events at Columbine High School in 1999, killing more than 200 students and teachers, and injuring another 200. More than 150,000 students attended schools where mass shootings occurred. Similarly, mass shootings outside schools have escalated and gun violence more broadly now claims over 13,000 lives and injures more than 25,000 each year in the United States. (SF 3278, SF 3279)
Legislation to prevent elder abuse
Bipartisan legislation was introduced this week that takes concrete steps to protect Minnesota seniors. The Governor, joined by DFLers and Republicans, held a joint press conference to unveil legislation that contains a package of robust proposals developed in response to reports from the Office of the Legislative Auditor and the Governor’s consumer workgroup on elder abuse.
The bill has four major components: improving licensure, enforcement, reporting, and investigations; strengthening and expanding the rights of older and vulnerable adults and their families; enhancing criminal and civil enforcement rights; and creating new licensing frameworks for assisted living facilities and dementia care.
Minnesota seniors deserve safe, quality care. This truly bipartisan proposal will take the critical and necessary steps needed to prevent abuse and neglect in long-term care facilities. It is a multi-pronged approach that will hold providers accountable for the care they provide, strengthen and improve the reporting system though the Department of Health’s Office of Health Facility Complaints, and empower seniors and their families. (SF3088)
Dayton delivers his final State of the State address
Governor Mark Dayton gave his eighth and final State of the State address on March 14 (click here for the full video), outlining his accomplishments during his two terms as Minnesota’s governor (click here to read the full speech). When Gov. Dayton first came into office, he inherited a $6.2 billion budget deficit and $1.9 billion had been borrowed from our public schools. Fixing the state’s budget mess and providing us fiscal stability has been a hallmark of his administration. Dayton has guided Minnesota towards a more stable budget outlook with nine budget surpluses out of 10 budget forecasts. Today, we have $1.9 billion in budget reserves and last month state officials forecast a $329 million surplus for the remainder of the current two-year budget cycle. Gov. Dayton made his commitment to continuing that prudent fiscal management clear.
When Dayton was running for office, he vowed to fight for education and he delivered. Minnesota has made meaningful investments in early education, implemented all-day kindergarten for parents who choose it for their children, and increased investments in K-12 public education. These investments have provided an academic jump-start for our state’s youngest learners and increased student performance to help our students be college and career ready.
Today, more than 40% of Minnesota’s waters are listed as impaired or polluted, and more and more rural drinking water systems are having to deal with nitrate contamination. Across Minnesota, water treatment plants and clean drinking water systems that keep our waters safe are in serious disrepair. Gov. Dayton asked the legislature to pass his proposed clean water investments in the bonding bill to repair our aging, under-funded clean water infrastructure and make clean water available and affordable for every Minnesota community.
Minnesota also made sensible investments in our economy and job creation. When Dayton took office, more than 200,000 Minnesotans were out of work and the unemployment rate was 6.9%. Today, our jobless rate is at 3.3% and we’ve created more than 286,000 new jobs. That’s good news for working families.