ST. PAUL – Legislation that would have positively impacted hundreds of thousands of middle-class Minnesotans has been vetoed by Governor Dayton, despite overwhelming bipartisan legislative support.
State Representative Joe Schomacker (R-Luverne) said he was disappointed that the governor broke his word and vetoed most bipartisan tax bill in 30 years.
“When Governor Dayton said he would be ‘unbound’ in his final term of public service, we expected he meant special interest groups, not middle class families that would have benefited from the tax relief in this overwhelmingly bipartisan bill,” Schomacker said. “Clearly, the Governor felt ‘bound’ by the special interests of farmers, college students, and young families who use childcare services because they are the ones who lose from this pocket veto.”
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 are LGA fixes for Woodstock, Dundee and Jeffers.
Schomacker said Dayton vetoed the bill despite agreement from Republicans to make two changes he requested to fix a drafting error and restore a small sales tax exemption.
“178 Republicans and Democrats in the legislature voted in favor of this bill, which is an astounding number in today’s political climate,” Schomacker said. “It’s truly unfortunate that hundreds of thousands of hardworking Minnesotans will literally pay the price thanks to the governor’s partisan ploy.”