Dayton’s income tax hike is well short of his $4 billion projection
Democrat Mark Dayton's campaign for governor released revenue estimates crunched by the Minnesota Department of Revenue that shows Dayton's proposed tax hike on Minnesota's top earners is well short of the $4 billion he's been projecting. (Update: The campaign points out that he was proposing $4 billion in new spending from a variety of areas but the biggest portion of his plan is the income tax hike).
Dayton requested the analysis after he pledged to not raise the rate higher than the top rate in the nation (Hawaii's rate is 11%). The Revenue Department said increasing the state's top rate from 7.85% to 10.95% would produce $1,899,300,000 in new revenue in the next two year budget (Read analysis here). Dayton's campaign spokeswoman Katie Tinucci said in a news release that the results show the campaign needs to find more revenue and additional spending cuts to balance a projected $5.8 billion budget deficit.
"These projections show that more work is needed to identify additional sources of revenues for making Minnesota's state and local taxes more progressive, a promise that Mark Dayton will keep, if he is elected Governor. It also shows the need for our continuing efforts to find additional areas to cut government spending that will not harm early childhood, K-12, and higher education.
"Mark Dayton is the only candidate with a tax plan that will protect the middle class, by making taxes fair again in Minnesota, rather than expanding the regressive sales tax, as Mr. Horner proposes, and the even more regressive property tax, as will Rep. Emmer's non-proposals."
Dayton also requested several projections. The 10.95% rate was the highest. Here's a link to the analysis of all of Dayton's requests.
Dayton's campaign released the projections after reporters requested it from the campaign and the Minnesota Department of Revenue. He is also proposing a property tax increase on $1 million homes and wants to expand gambling.
Republican Tom Emmer is scheduled to release the third part of his budget plan later today.
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