Senate Passes Republican Tax Relief Plan

The Minnesota Senate completed passage Monday, May 15, of the Senate and House budget plans, which included $1.15 billion dollars in tax relief and $372 million dollars for transportation projects. As acknowledge by Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, Governor Mark Dayton is expected to veto the plans, "but we did our job in passing a balanced budget and getting that before the Governor. But that wasn't good enough, and we're going to roll up our sleeves..."

Governor Dayton and leaders will continue negotiating an agreement on the ten budget bills, with Session adjournment date of May 22 approaching. The latest Republican global budget targets offered to Dayton include tax reduction of $1 billion dollars, an additional $373 million dollars for education; $149 million dollars for higher education. The Republican-proposed targets also will reduce funding in health and human services by $473 million dollars and cut state agency budgets by $40 million dollars.