Senate Votes on Republican Tax Plan

On a 42-24 vote, the Senate gave its initial approval Thursday, April 7, to a tax bill that would reduce the state’s first tier income tax rate from 5.35 percent to 2.8 percent, eliminate income taxes on all social security benefits and provide state tax conformity to a number of federal provisions.

Senate Tax Chair Carla Nelson, R-Rochester, said that the state's $9.2 billion budget surplus is evidence of overtaxation. Lowering the first tier rate will help all taxpayers and removing taxes on social security benefits will help prevent seniors from moving out of state, she said. "We are standing in quicksand here, and the world is moving around us and the money is moving with it," she said. "People are leaving our state because they cannot afford to retire here."

Senator Anne Johnson Stewart, DFL-Wayzata, an engineer, suggested that a better use for the budget surplus would be repairing Minnesota's flagging infrastructure. Senate Minority Leader Melisa López Franzen pointed out that the tax bill will not benefit more than 500,000 lower income Minnesotans. "The number of people left out of this bill would fill Target Field, where the Twins play, more than thirteen times," she said.

The vote on the tax bill exemplifies a primary focus of the Republican-led Senate as members return home for the Passover/Easter break. Chair Nelson told members that an additional tax bill to deal with property taxes and other issues will come at a later date. SF 3682 was laid on the table, because tax bills must originate in the House.