Don’t fall for the governor’s tax rebate swindle
By: Senator Steve Drazkowski
At the beginning of August, Democrats across Minnesota and Gov. Tim Walz took a victory lap to celebrate the distribution of one-time rebates to Minnesota taxpayers. It was a pretty brazen move considering the paltry amounts they were giving back. The meager $260 checks are barely enough to cover a couple of tanks of gas and a trip to the grocery store.
It is also brazen considering what Gov. Walz and Democrats promised – $2,000 rebates.
I hate to say it, but you were swindled. Democrats promised $2,000 checks on the campaign trail because they wanted Minnesotans to believe they cared about giving the surplus back. They were never serious about it. They consistently resisted Republican efforts to give the surplus back when control of the legislature was split. When they won complete control, they could have kept their promise. They didn’t.
They broke their promise because of greed. They wanted to keep the surplus and spend it on their pet projects, nonprofits, and giveaways to their allies and Democrat politicians. There was more than enough money to fund the priorities that we all consider essential; the priorities that are core functions of government. The rest of the surplus should have been returned to you.
Republicans are the only ones who made a serious effort to do that.
With our proposal you could have had more than $12 billion in relief tax relief, including:
- $5 billion for one-time rebates, which amounted to $1250 for single filers and $2500 for joint filers
- $3 billion for permanent, ongoing tax relief for all income tax filers by lowering the first and second tax rate
- $1.26b to fully eliminate the tax on Social Security benefits, with an average benefit of $1,277
- $3.5b to expand the child tax credit to $1,800 per child under 18
- $35m to lower property taxes by expanding and increasing the homestead market value exclusion
We could have done even more than that. Prior to legislative actions this past May that spent the entire surplus AND raised your taxes by another $10 billion, the government over-collected more than $19 billion of your money. Had we returned the entire surplus, each adult taxpayer would have received a check of about $5,400. That means that Democrats spent 94% of your over-collected tax money, returned 6% of it to you, and then jacked up your taxes to astronomical levels going forward. Now they have the audacity to tell you that they gave you a tax cut! The working people of Minnesota have truly been swindled.
Remember: This is your money. It doesn’t belong to the state. Government is already a bloated, wasteful mess; you should be especially angry when they over-collect to a degree that creates a $19 billion surplus. Every dollar they take is a dollar that you can’t use to repair your truck, pay for your kids’ braces, or take a family trip. Those dollars should go back to your pocket, not be spent by bureaucrats on their pet projects.
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It is a privilege to serve you.
Draz