Revenue Dep’t: Senate Tax bill raises property taxes

A few weeks ago, I wrote about a Revenue Department estimate that projected Gov. Pawlenty's budget plan would raise property taxes by $625 million over the next few years. The biggest critic of Pawlenty's plan was Senate Tax Chair Tom Bakk of Cook.

It just so happens that the Revenue Department ran some numbers on Bakk's Tax bill and found that Bakk's bill also raises property taxes. Here's the e-mail from Pawlenty's spokesman Brian McClung:

TO: Capitol Press Corps

FROM: Brian McClung

RE: Property tax impact of the Senate DFL Tax Bill

In the Senate Tax Committee today you may have heard Senator Bakk argue that the Governor's budget would impact property taxes by approximately $600 million over the next three years.

What he didn't say is that his Tax Bill would have an even larger impact on property taxes.

The Revenue Department today analyzed the effect of the Senate DFL Tax Bill. They found that Sen. Bakk's proposal to eliminate the Governor's property tax caps would increase property taxes by an estimated $414.6 million.

The Senate DFL Tax Bill also includes a reduction in the Homeowner Property Tax Refund over the same time period of $138.2 million.

And the bill increases the statewide business property tax by $333.6 million in the timeframe.

So you've got:

Property tax increases due to levy limit removal $414.6 million

Homeowner PTR reduction $138.2 million

Statewide business property tax increase $333.6 million

TOTAL SENATE DFL PROPERTY TAX IMPACT $886.4 million

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