Dear Neighbor,
I want to start today’s newsletter by saying I’m praying for all law enforcement, first responders and the community of Burnsville. God bless our law enforcement officers, fire/rescue personnel and medical first responders.
Here are this week’s notes from St. Paul:
Precinct caucus meetings
This year’s precinct caucuses will take place at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 27. These meetings provide Minnesotans with the opportunity to participate in grassroots politics. The more people we have involved in this process, the better and I hope you can attend. The Minnesota Secretary of State website has a statewide Caucus Finder page to help citizens find their meeting locations.
Partial fix of tax bill
Many Minnesotans likely will see their income-tax returns improve due to legislation the House passed this week – while some other taxpayers were ignored. Here’s more:
Last session, the Democrat-led legislature approved comprehensive taxes legislation that reduced standard income tax deductions, leading to tax increases for roughly 76 percent of Minnesotans.
In particular, the bill correctly inflates the statutory amounts for the standard deduction, additional standard deduction for seniors and blind taxpayers, and standard deduction amounts for dependents. Without this correction, the Department of Revenue estimates that an additional $352 million in general fund tax revenue would be raised starting in tax year 2024.
Meanwhile, the bill did not include agreed-upon language that would provide a technical fix to the Net Operating Loss provision. This provision reduced the NOL deduction from 80 percent to 70 percent of taxable income for corporations. The legislative intent was to make this provision effective for tax year 2024. However, the 2023 Tax Bill contained an effective date of tax year 2023.
The House and Senate tax chairs co-signed a letter to state revenue officials last June, promising to fix this problem at their earliest convenience but then did not follow through when they had their chance. If the NOL error is not fixed, tax year 2023 filers will be liable for additional tax revenue with a general fund revenue gain of an estimated $14.8 million.
The common thread in all of this is the one-party majority rushed legislation last session and made mistakes. I’m happy to support the bill we approved because it prevents Minnesota taxpayers from suffering $350 million in damages but, to be clear, this is just a partial fix. The $15 million NOL error is still a big deal and, as of now, taxpayers are going to have to pay for it.
The bill as written advanced to the Senate after passing the House 128-2.
National FFA Week
I would like to salute our area Future Farmers of America chapters as we make our way through National FFA Week. This is a fantastic organization dedicated to helping our youth develop leadership skills, personal growth, and career success. I look forward to meeting with FFA students when they make their annual visit to the Capitol next week.
Here some info illustrating just how crucial agriculture is to our state economy:
- The Minnesota Department of Agriculture indicates our state ranks No. 6 in the nation in agricultural production, with $26 billion in agricultural sales per year.
- Minnesota’s combined agriculture, food processing, and forestry industries contribute over 15 percent of Minnesota’s total economic activities and support over 10 percent of all jobs.
- The overall impacts of Minnesota’s agricultural production, processing, and forestry industries generate nearly $106 billion annually in total economic impacts and support 388,134 jobs.
Until next time, have a good weekend and please stay in touch. I hope next week we have real developments to share regarding a bipartisan solution on the school resource officers issue that has diminished the safety of Minnesota students, teachers and staff. We also will have an updated state economic forecast set to be issued next week and can touch on that.
Sincerely,
Lisa