House Property Tax Division report heads to taxes committee

Their work is done here. After a little over an hour of discussion and debate Friday, the House Property Tax Division approved its division report and sent it to the House Taxes Committee.

Containing 128 provisions that cover everything from a refundable renter’s income tax credit to increased local government aid and county program aid to changes in local tax increment financing districts, HF1377, as amended, was approved by a voice vote without dissent. 

It remains to be seen how many of the bill’s provisions will make it into the omnibus tax bill scheduled to be unveiled next week, but the property tax division has weighed in with its opinions.

“I’d give more,” said Rep. Dave Lislegard (DFL-Aurora), the division chair and bill sponsor. “I’d be a real big Santa Claus if I could, but we need to be fiscally responsible. I think this is a balanced approach. And I couldn’t be more proud.”

In addition to an author’s amendment that made technical corrections, the committee also adopted an amendment proposed by Rep. Paul Anderson (R-Starbuck) to increase the annual appropriation for soil and water conservation districts from $12 million to $16 million.

Six other proposed amendments were not adopted, all of them offered by either Anderson or Rep. Duane Quam (R-Byron). They would have removed the inflation adjustment built into the bill’s appropriations for local government aid and county program aid; placed levy limits on local governments; bumped up the state’s maximum homestead credit refund more than the bill already would; added a homeowner’s refundable tax credit; added an additional property tax refund; and moved to a five-year average of assessed property values.

[More: Find more details of the bill]

“There’s a lot of great stuff in here,” said Rep. Aisha Gomez (DFL-Mpls), chair of the taxes committee. “There’s help for our communities, for our local government partners, our residents, whether they’re renters or homeowners.”

[More: View the spreadsheet]

“I wish that this bill contained some of those long-term effective programs, because now is the time when we could do it,” Quam said.

[More: See how the division report’s changes would affect your community’s local government aid and county program aid.]

“We all have a lot of the same interests as far as helping our renters and homeowners,” Anderson said. “[Soil and Water Conservation Districts], I’m sure appreciate the funding supply and the bit of an increase we gave them today.”