– Senate Republicans today announced a taxpayer focused plan to return Minnesota’s budget surplus back to the taxpayers. The Senate plan emphasizes returning your money back in your pockets, particularly middle-income and low-income earners, so you have more security, freedom, and flexibility to chase your dreams. This is the marquee piece of Senate Republicans’ Vision 2020 Agenda, which was unveiled in January.

The Get Your Billion Back tax plan is a series of tax cuts worth more than $1 billion, which will ease the tax burden for every single Minnesota taxpayer. We are fighting to reduce the bottom income tax rate, completely eliminating taxes on Social Security income, expanding the K-12 income tax credit, fully conform with 179 federal regulations and more.

“The surplus clearly signifies the Government has its hands deep in your pockets,” said Senator Mark Johnson (R-East Grand Forks).  “The more money the government takes, the more it seems to need. Before bureaucrats can figure out how to increase spending by another billion dollars, let’s get it back to the families, farmers, and businesses who need it for their own priorities.  It’s past time that we stop wasting money on ballooning government and criminally wasteful agencies like the Department of Human Services.”

• Reducing the lowest rate will positively impact everyone who pays income taxes in Minnesota and help low-income and middle-income workers in particular. It will mark the second consecutive year that Senate Republicans have reduced income tax rates – an achievement that hadn’t been accomplished in almost two decades prior to 2019.

• Expanding the K-12 Education Tax Credit will specifically help parents of school-age children save money when they file their taxes. More families will qualify for the expanded credit, and those who do will also see larger savings on their tax returns.

• Eliminating the tax on Social Security Income is long overdue. Minnesota is one of only 13 states that imposes this tax on retirees, many of whom are on a fixed income. Throwing out the Social Security income tax will encourage more seniors to stay in Minnesota after retirement. This is one of the most popular and frequent requests made by constituents at town halls, via social media, and through emails and phone calls.

• Fully conforming to Section 179 of the federal tax code will help farmers and mom-and-pop businesses grow and invest in their operations by giving them more flexibility to deduct large equipment purchases, and Expanding the Angel Tax Credit will help innovative technologies and groundbreaking ideas reach new heights by giving people a greater incentive to invest in Minnesota companies.

• Reforming school Equalization Aid will provide more money to school districts that have less property wealth and provide property tax relief to property owners in those districts.

• Reallocating more mortgage and deed tax revenue to affordable housing programs, as well as property tax classification rate reductions, will help more Minnesotans secure the American Dream of homeownership.
• Reforms and reductions to Charitable Gaming rules will keep more money raised from gaming by local charities in the communities they support. These are games run exclusively by private nonprofits, like Little League teams. Currently, only a tiny sliver of the proceeds from these games benefits the charities’ missions. Aside from overhead, most proceeds go to state taxes.