State Senate tax details coming Wednesday
The chairman of the Minnesota Senate tax committee said today that he plans to unveil a tax cut proposal on Wednesday.
Senate DFL leaders will detail their plan nearly two weeks after the House passed a $503 million package of tax cuts. The House bill included several changes to line up state and federal tax law on various credits and deductions. It also repeals three new business sales taxes passed last session.
Tax Chair Rod Skoe, DFL-Clearbrook, still won’t say whether those repeals will be in the Senate bill. He said he’s been looking hard at the long-term budget impact of losing that revenue.
“We’re trying to make sure that the tails and the inflation are manageable,” Skoe said. “We think that we should also leave some resources for the next Legislature to work with.”
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Skoe said the full Senate could vote on the bill by the end of the week. DFL Gov. Mark Dayton, who has his own $616 million tax cut proposal, is pushing lawmakers for quick action on a bill.
Senate Minority Leader David Hann, R-Eden Prairie, supports the repeals, but he said he’s skeptical about their chances of getting in the Senate bill. Hann said Senate DFL leaders have never made any public commitment to the repeals, even though Dayton, House Democrats and Republicans in both chambers have been talking about them for for months.
“It’s the reluctance on the part of the Senate leadership that makes me believe that probably what they’re going to put together will not include that or at least not entirely,” Hann said.
The taxes are on business equipment repair, telecommunication equipment and warehousing services.
Sen. Ann Rest, DFL-New Hope, offered one clue about the bill. Rest, who chairs the tax reform division, said the Senate is following the governor’s recommendations for eliminating the gift tax and simplifying the estate tax, which were not included in the House bill.
“We think we need to act on that as quickly as some of the other things,” Rest said.