By Rep. Paul Anderson
The Legislature has finished its work, having sent Gov. Mark Dayton a set of budget bills that will finance the state of Minnesota for the next two years.
The governor signed all 10 of those pieces of legislation, but he also did something that came as a complete surprise to me, in that he line-item vetoed funding for the House and Senate for the next four years. He did that to show his displeasure with several policy provisions contained in the various bills he signed, and to bring us back for yet another special session to deal with those items already put into law. I don’t think this type of action has been taken before, and the courts will have to determine if one branch of government can effectively shut down another.
This piece of news overshadowed the fact that agreement was reached to fund state government, and much good work had been done to reach accord on several difficult issues. For example, a new transportation bill was passed and signed into law, one that will provide significant new funding for our state’s roads and bridges. And it was done without raising the gas tax. It took some of the state’s surplus money, in addition to allocating sales taxes already being collected on items such as car repairs into the transportation fund. In taking general fund money and using it for road funding, we become the 34th state to do so. The nearly $1 billion bonding bill, the final piece of legislation passed, will also provide significant funding for roads and bridges. In total, this represents the largest transportation bill in the past 20 years and is the largest ever without an increase in the gas tax.
The tax bill also contains provisions that will benefit many residents of Minnesota. It contains the 40-percent state credit on agricultural land as it pertains to school capital referendums. Beginning next year in 2018, all current and new school building referendums will be affected by this legislation. This is the same credit that was contained in last year’s tax bill, but was vetoed by the governor because of a one-word “mistake” in the bill.
This tax bill also contains relief for the owners of commercial property. Under this legislation, the first $100,000 in valuation will be exempt from the statewide property tax, which will greatly help owners of smaller commercial buildings all across the state. In addition, the automatic inflator that increased this tax every year has been eliminated.
Also included in the tax bill is relief for Social Security recipients up to certain income levels from the state income tax on those benefits. In addition, legislation I carried in the House on behalf of the city of Melrose is included. It contains a sales tax exemption and money for the city and building owners to recover from a devastating fire that destroyed part of a downtown block in the city last year.
The agriculture policy bill that came out of my committee was combined with the ag finance bill. It, too, was signed by the governor. Among its many provisions is one that will grant additional funding to local units of government for their efforts in the area of noxious weeds, with a particular eye of keeping the spread of a new invasive weed called Palmer ameranth in check.
We were not able to officially move back the enforcement dates for Minnesota’s buffer law. Public waters must have grass strips installed by November first of this year; however land owners can obtain an eight-month waiver so the work could be done next spring. It’s best to contact your local SWCD for more information on buffers and possible alternative practices.
It was another successful Stearns County Breakfast on the Farm last Saturday at the Kuechle Dairy between Eden Valley and Watkins. A half-inch rain the night before settled the dust as bus after bus brought folks out to the 200-plus cow operation. Congratulations and thanks to the Kuechle family for hosting the event. Next year’s Breakfast on the Farm will be at the Vogt Dairy of Sauk Centre.
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