Friends and neighbors,
The number one thing I hear about around the district is this: “When are you going to give back the surplus?” I hear it day in, day out. I hear it from Republicans, I hear it from independents, I hear it from Democrats. I hear it everywhere.
Giving back the surplus has been my top priority this year. Early in session we introduced the Give it back Plan to return the surplus to taxpayers. It fully eliminates the tax on Social Security benefits and provided income tax relief, relief for homeowners, relief for young families, and one-time rebate checks of as much as $2,500. It would have meant serious savings for Minnesotans.
On the campaign trail last year, Democrats claimed they wanted to give back the surplus too. The promised big rebates, and they promised to fully eliminate the Social Security benefits tax.
Unfortunately, they crafted a tax bill that does not deliver on these promises.
Their bill did include some small aids and credits, along with tiny rebates, but most of the “relief” comes from local government aid and county program aid. And while those programs are useful, they do not put money directly into the pockets of taxpayers.
Furthermore, their bill includes a new and controversial mandatory worldwide reporting tax that would increase taxes by $1.2 billion. It’s worth noting that no other state in the country currently implements this mandatory tax. This will almost certainly dissuade these companies from conducting business in Minnesota. I have been doing commercial real estate for 30 years, and I talk to businesses every single day that are leaving the state. Policies like this are a good example of why.
The Democrats made a promise to return the surplus, but they broke that promise.
Minnesota has an enormous budget surplus. Around $19 billion or so. Democrats are proposing a ludicrously large $72 billion budget – a growth in government of more than 30% from the last budget. Yet, they still could not find a way to provide Minnesotans with significant, permanent tax relief.
Transportation bill – Good bill with one significant problem
Recently The Minnesota Senate passed a transportation budget bill that provides funding for critical transportation infrastructure, but also contains $2.7 billion in tax increases – including tab fee and vehicle registration taxes, an increase to the metro area sales tax, and motor vehicle tax hikes. The tax increases are part of Democrats’ $10 billion tax increase agenda, which they are seeking despite the state holding a record $17.5 billion budget surplus.
I have said this before: There are a lot of good things in the transportation bill, including provisions I have authored and worked on for many years – provisions like dedicated funding for small city and township roads, desperately-needed support for our deputy registrars, a new helicopter for the State Patrol, online driver’s education, and additional funding for the Corridors of Commerce program.
But there are also a lot of things I am deeply concerned about, nothing more so than raising taxes by $2.7 billion when Minnesotans are struggling with inflation.
Full disclosure, I voted for this bill off the floor. It was more of a procedural vote, so that I could be named a member of the conference committee with the House of Representatives to reach an agreement on the bill. We absolutely should not be raising taxes right now, but there are some good things in this bill, and I will keep working on the bill and make it better. We still have an opportunity to build a bipartisan transportation bill that funds roads and bridges throughout the state, without raising taxes on Minnesotans.
Contact me:
If you have any questions about any issues we are working on at the legislature, feel free to contact me any time at sen.john.jasinski@senate.mn or 651-296-0284.
And you can always get the latest news from St. Paul on my Facebook page at fb.com/SenatorJohnJasinski.
It is a privilege to serve you!