ST. PAUL - Following two years of work and overwhelming bipartisan support in the Minnesota House and Senate, legislation sponsored by State Representative Greg Davids (R-Preston) providing roughly $800 million in tax relief to middle-class Minnesotans has been vetoed by Governor Dayton.
“His action is a tremendous disappointment,” Davids said. “Governor Dayton found one problem with the legislation and it could have been fixed with a simple letter, so this excuse is nothing more than a red herring.”
Due to Governor Dayton’s actions, every small business owner in Minnesota loses an exemption of their first $100,000 of commercial industrial property; 61,000 farmers miss out on an agriculture bond credit; 386,000 families lose an expansion of the working family tax credit and 41,000 families see the disappearance of a childcare tax credit expansion.
A substantial increase in Local Government Aid (LGA) and County Program Aid (CPA) is also gone, as is tax reciprocity with Wisconsin and loan forgiveness for the Caledonia School District.
Davids said his bill was the most bipartisan taxes proposal sent to a governor over the past three decades.
“For two years I worked hard to secure support from Democrats, and in the end 89 percent of state lawmakers voted in favor of the proposal,” Davids said. “It’s unfortunate the governor chose to play political games with this very good, and much needed, tax relief plan for middle class Minnesotans.”