From an MN-GOP communique:
NOTHING EXCEEDS LIKE EXCESS!
DFL TAX INCREASE PROPOSALS TOP $5 BILLION!
1. NOBODY KNOWS HOW THE DFL TAX BILL WILL APPEAR. IT WON'T LOOK GOOD.
With seven weeks left until the legislative session ends, no one can predict what tax increases will be passed. So anything on the list of 62 bills introduced by House Democrats could be sent to the Governor.
It is likely that Senate tax proposals will prevail over House tax increases, because the Senate is not up for reelection for three years, because the Senate has more unity, and because the Senate has more experienced negotiators. The House-Senate tax conference committee may be the only form of high-stakes gambling where the House is going to lose. But two very positive developments have occurred in the last week.
· On Saturday, the House Republicans hung together and held Democrats to less than the 90 votes they would need to over-ride a veto of $900 million of increases in taxes for transportation and transit projects. (House File 946).
· On Tuesday night, the House Republicans passed their second test and held Democrats to less than the 90 votes they would need to over-ride a veto of their $290 million non-emergency bonding bill in a non-bonding year. (House File 886)
2. THE POLITICS OF ENVY, GREED, AND CLASS WARFARE
The Senate said today that it will focus its tax increases primarily on the top income earners in the state. There are at least six problems with that approach.
· MOST OF US WILL ALSO GET HIT: Although the Democrats say they are focusing their tax increases on top earners, everyone is likely to have something taken from their wallets in one way or another. See the 60 tax proposals below.
· ALMOST ALL OF US WILL GET HIT INDIRECTLY: Even though the new taxes may not fall directly on most working Minnesotans, the taxes will fall on the people who employ most Minnesotans. Fewer jobs, fewer raises, and fewer investments in productivity will hurt most Minnesotans if the Democrats succeed in their "class warfare."
· "INCOME" AS FACTOR ON ALMOST ALL TAXES?: The Democrats are not just focusing on higher income taxes on the top earners. They have bills that will impose higher incomes taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, franchise taxes, state taxes and local taxes on the top earners. If a business manager and a retired couple own identical adjoining houses that place the same burden on municipal services, the Democrats would collect more property taxes on the manager's home.
· ARE THEY ALREADY PAYING THEIR "FAIR SHARE?": The Democrats play a game of percentages in their politics of envy and greed. They claim that top earners pay less than 10% of their income in state taxes, while middle class folks pay over 12% in state taxes. Here are some facts.
o The 23,668 people in the top one percent of Minnesota earners pay 24.3% of state income taxes. They pay more income taxes than the combined income taxes of the 1.9 million Minnesotans who earn less than $76,000 per year, the bottom 80% of income earners.
o The average person in the top 1% of Minnesota earners pays $59,000 in income taxes. That is 671 times more than is paid by someone who earns $20,000. But the top earners do not use 671 times more of the resources for public schools, college grants, subsidized health care, subsidized transportation, subsidized food, cash payments, police or fire protection. They just pay for it for over half of the other citizens.
Even when you include all state and local taxes, the top 1% of Minnesota earners pays more in taxes than the bottom 50% of Minnesota earners.
· IS IT A "FAIR SHARE" IF YOU WORK THREE DAYS A WEEK TO PAY TAXES?: Most of the top 1% of Minnesota earners also pay separate state and local taxes as owners or shareholders in businesses. When you add all of these taxes to federal income taxes, a double share on Social Security, and other federal fees, these people work Monday, Tuesday, and most of Wednesday to pay their taxes. The Democrats say this is not their "fair share?"
· ARE YOU "RICH" IF YOU EARN $36,000?: If you earn $36,000, then some House Democrats think you are rich enough to start losing an exemption they would provide for a new sales tax on clothes. Rep. Melissa Hortman (D-Brooklyn Park) offered House File 2163.
3. LAST YEAR, THE DEMOCRATS SAID THAT TAXES DID NOT NEED TO BE RAISED
Gubernatorial candidate Mike Hatch said that tax increases did not need to be raised. He said he would close some loopholes and increase collections of unpaid taxes, but that no new taxes needed to be raised with anticipated surpluses of up to $2 billion.
Minnesota Public Radio asked future House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher whether taxes would need to be raised in 2007. She answered, "No." There was no equivocation. There was no explanation. There was no hesitation. She just said, "no."
4. THAT WAS THEN. THIS IS NOW.
With seven weeks until the end of the regular session, House Democrats have introduced 62 bills to increase state taxes by over $5 billion. Not all of those bills will pass. But Democrats are going to send major tax increases before May 21. Here is a summary of the DFL's "tax grab" proposals.
5. SOME OF THIS WEEK'S NEWEST PROPOSALS
1. Rep. Paymar Declares War On Billboards: Rep. Michael Paymar introduced three bills to: 1) declare a state-wide moratorium on new billboards; 2) change rules to shorten the survival of existing billboards; and 3) put a new $500 surcharge on billboards, with the revenue to be used to buy and destroy existing billboards. (House Files 2189, 2202, and 2203).
2. A Naval Battle On Minnesota Lakes: Rep. Bev Scalze (D-Little Canada) wants to raise the fees on all watercraft. On boats over 19-feet long, she would add a $25 surcharge to a $27 fee. (House File 2216)
3. Raise your energy taxes to pay for my electric car and solar panels: Rep. Frank Hornstein (D-Minneapolis) wants to raise the surcharge on your retail electricity bills to pay for a rebate program for the installation or use of solar technologies. (House File 2384)
4. Bad Math And Plug-In Cars: Remember the "yellow bike" project in St. Paul, where yellow bicycles were provided by the city for anyone's use? Within weeks, all of the bikes were dumped in lakes or stolen and repainted. Rep. Frank Hornstein (D-Minneapolis) wants to provide $1.355 million to test plug-in cars for community use. He would spend $985,000 to create fleets of these community vehicles, and $355,000 to study "environmentally sensitive ways to manufacture" the vehicles. The bill does not say how he would spend the other $20,000. (House File 2376)
6. THE CURRENT "MAIN CONTENDERS" FOR TAX INCREASES
5. Create a new income tax rate for the top 1% of Minnesota earners. Approved by the House Committee on Ways & Means last Friday, this would take 9% of all earnings from the 23,668 top earners. The Senate now wants to impose a 9.7% tax rate on even more people. This would be the highest income tax rate imposed by any state.
6. Put New Taxes On Major Employers: The House Committee on Ways & Means also approved a $244 million tax increase on Minnesota employers who have sales or operations in other states. Democrats call these employers "foreign operating corporations" or "FOCs."
a. These Minnesota companies already pay state and local taxes to other states where they have sales or operations. But Minnesota wants a second bite on their profits.
b. When California put a similar bite on their large employers, many just left the state. For example, Pacific Mutual Insurance moved its headquarters to Omaha. The whales in their television ads now swim in cornfields, and not the Pacific.
7. Collecting From Your Local Drug Pusher: The House Committee on Ways & Means also announced a plan to hire hundreds of new auditors to collect $80 million of uncollected taxes. Scofflaw peddlers at flea markets and tax-dodging drug pushers, beware!
8. $450 Per Driver In Gas And Other Transportation Taxes: The House has passed a "first draft" of a bill that would: 1) raise gas taxes to grab $332 million per year; 2) allow counties to impose "wheelage taxes" on every car to grab $92 million per year; 3) raise the price of license tabs to grab $59 million per year; 4) allow metro counties to raise sales taxes to grab $222 million per year; 5) allow a metro tax on new cars to grab $3.2 million per year; 6) allow a new state-wide sales tax for transportation to grab $362 million per year; and 7) add a dedicated sales tax on cars that will be used for leases to grab $36.4 million per year. If this bill became law, the new taxes and fees would be an increase of $885 million per year. (House File 946) The Senate version of the bill raises even more taxes.
9. Property Tax Increases On Small Businesses: Both the House and Senate Democrats have proposed about $200 million of property tax increases on employers.
10. "Property Tax Relief" That Is Just More Government Spending: The Senate has proposed $225 million of "property tax relief" that would primarily consist of taking a large portion of your tax payments and sending them to county commissions, city councils, and school boards for more government spending. The House "property tax relief" plan is expected to provide similar "government spending disguised at tax relief."
7. OTHER PROPOSALS TO RAISE INCOME TAXES ON WORKING MINNESOTANS
11. Rep. Mindy Greiling (D-Roseville) would raise $252 million. (House File 1738)
12. Rep. Ann Lenczewski (D-Bloomington) wants to raise income taxes on 170,000 taxpayers. She added this tax increase with an amendment to House File 1258. It would collect millions more in income taxes.
13. Rep. Mike Jaros (D-Duluth) wants to raise all three brackets by about 10% above current levels. Estimated revenues: $1.2 billion. (House File 1932. Let us hope the number is coincidental.)
8. SALES TAXES ON CONSUMERS
14. Rep. Tony Sertich (D-Chisholm) wants to raise the sales tax by at least $17 million to pay more for the arts and for natural resources projects. (House File 2285)
15. You are rich if you make over $36,000 per year. Rep. Melissa Hortman (D-Brooklyn Park) has offered another big sales tax hike. In this version, sales taxes now would be collected on clothing. A tax credit would be offset this tax increase for some working Minnesotans, but that would begin to shrink for individuals who make $36,000 or couples who earn $48,000. (House File 2163)
16. Rep. Melissa Hortman (D-Brooklyn Park) wants to add sales taxes on things ranging from baby's first hair cut to grampa's funeral. She wants to impose sales taxes on clothing (except for low-income people), magazines, car repairs, legal services to individuals, accounting for individuals, financial services for individuals, brokerage services for individuals, tattoos, body-piercing, hair cuts, hair styling, hair extensions, facials, body wraps, shaving and waxing, tanning services, manicures, pedicures, insulin, medical oxygen, over-the-counter drugs, prescription eyeglasses, and funeral services. (House File 2163)
17. Rep. Melissa Hortman (D-Brooklyn Park) wants to impose an extra sales tax to pay for transit and other purposes. In the Metro area, there would be one tax increase. In the rest of the state, the new tax could be proposed by any two or more county boards. (House File 1463)
18. Rep. Rick Hansen (D-South St. Paul) would impose an extra sales tax to raise at least $500 million a year pay for new parks, trails, and habitat projects. (House File 1449)
19. Rep. Shelley Madore (D-Apple Valley) wants to impose an extra sales tax on the three million people in the metro area to pay for more buses and trolleys. (House File 1112).
9. TAX THE DEAD, THE DRIVERS, THE HOMEOWNERS, THE PAINT ON THEIR HOMES
20. Rep. Tom Anzelc (D-International Falls) wants to authorize a new tax on dead people in his area to pay for the Lakeview Cemetery Association. (House File 213).
21. Rep. Bernie Lieder (D-Crookston) wants to triple a tax on hearses. (House File 946)
22. Rep. Lyle Koenen (D-Clara City) wants to raise your gas taxes, your special fuel taxes, and to create a new motor vehicle sales tax. (House File 2219)
23. Rep. Ken Tschumper (D-La Crescent) wants to raise fuel taxes by 50 percent on gasoline, E85, M85, liquefied petroleum and natural gas, propane and compressed natural gas. (House File 1469)
24. Rep. Bernie Lieder (D-Crookston) wants to raise your gas taxes by 50 percent, and allow counties to charge you a wheelage tax, and triple the tax on cars, and allow counties to raise the sales tax, and put a transportation-impact tax on every building permit, and raise the cost to register vehicles. (House File 946)
25. Homeowners would face a 50 percent increase when filing any papers related to the purchase, transfer, mortgaging, sale, or other transfer of property. Money from those taxes on homeowners would be given to non-homeowners seeking to rent property or buy their own homes. Rep. Scott Kranz (D-Blaine) wrote House File 939.
26. Rep. Frank Hornstein (D-Minneapolis) wants to let any three-county panel impose sales and use taxes on motor vehicles. (House File 1920)
27. Rep. Melissa Hortman (D-Brooklyn Park) wants to collect more taxes on local deeds and mortgage documents in Anoka County. (House File 362)
28. Rep. Erin Murphy (D-St. Paul) wants to collect more taxes on local deeds and mortgage documents in Hennepin and Ramsey Counties. (House File 1042)
29. Rep. Joe Atkins (D-Inver Grove Heights) wants to collect more taxes on local deeds and mortgage documents in Dakota County. (House File 1466)
30. Sen. Linda Higgins (D-Minneapolis) wants to impose a new tax on paint. (Senate File 836)
31. Rep. Jean Wagenius (D-Minneapolis) wants to impose a 25-cent tax on every incandescent light bulb in the state. (House File 2156)
32. Rep. Jim Davnie (D-Minneapolis) wants to put a tax of 91-cents-per-ounce on moist snuff. (House File 2311)
33. Rep. David Dill (D-Crane Lake) wants airport authorities to send a bill to county commissioners instructing them to impose and deliver property taxes from all land-owners who have property in the area of district boundaries of the airport authority. (House File 2287)
10. TAXING ALCOHOL AND COSMETIC SURGERY
34. Rep. Phyllis Kahn (D-Minneapolis) wants to tax cosmetic surgery. This would be a bad precedent the sales tax, which generally has applied only to goods (except for food, clothing, and a few other exceptions). (House File 1027)
35. Rep. Michael Paymar (D-St. Paul) wants to pile enormous tax increases on beverages containing alcohol. He would raise taxes on metric sales beverages by the following percentages: distilled spirits (up 228%); wine (up 450%); hard cider (up 800%); regular beer (up 790%); and 3.2% beer (up 457%). (House File 1050) It would collect over $110 million in new taxes.
36. Rep. Karen Clark (D-Minneapolis) is seeking similar increases in taxes on alcohol, but for other purposes. (House File 1446)
11. TAXES THAT WILL DESTROY JOBS AND CHASE AWAY EMPLOYERS
37. You have seen the television ads for Pacific Mutual Insurance, with whales swimming through the air, and splashing their tails in the rolling waves. California decided to cut back on deductions that local companies took for business expenses they incurred in other states. So the whales moved to the cornfields when Pacific Mutual decided to move its headquarters to Nebraska. A similar fate could await major Minnesota employers if the same types of tax burdens are piled on them by Rep. Joe Mullery (D-Minneapolis). He wants to punish "foreign operating corporations," which are major local employers whose success has allowed them to do business in other states and countries. (House File 943)
12. TAXES ON FRIENDS AND RELATIVES
38. Rep. Joe Mullery (D-Minneapolis) wants to put a 10% tax on people who give gifts. If the donor does not pay the tax, then the tax liability shifts to the person who received the gift. In such cases, the donor would still be liable for a $100 penalty for not paying the gift tax. Under the bill, you could be required to show the gift to the Commissioner of Revenue to determine its true worth. (House File 1212)
13. "REACH OUT AND TOUCH SOMEONE," WITH TAXES
39. Rep. Debra Hilstrom (D-Brooklyn Center) wants to raise a tax on cell phones, land-line phones, and other telecommunications devices by 46%. (House File 1464)
14. "GIVING" BEGINS AT HOME
40. You Want To Raise Other People's Taxes By $222 Million To Pay For a New Camp Snoopy?: Rep. Michael Nelson (D-Brooklyn Park) wants to shift property taxes to regular citizens in order to give tax increment relief to the owners of the Mall of America who want to expand the facility without paying sales taxes on the materials for the expansion The state would provide $180 million to build new parking ramps, and Blooming taxpayers would provide $42 million for new streets, water, sewer, and other improvements. (House File 2237)
41. Rep. Rick Hansen (D-South St. Paul) would impose a local food and beverage tax on Mendota. (House File 2261)
42. Rep. Ken Tschumper (D-La Crescent) wants to impose a local sales tax in Lanesboro. (House File 2243)
43. Rep. Deb Hilstrom (D-Brooklyn Center) wants to shift property taxes from one set of residents to another by expanding the use of the local tax increment financing district. (House File 2193)
44. Rep. Deb Hilstrom (D-Brooklyn Center) wants to shift property taxes from one set of residents to another by expanding the use of the local tax increment financing district. (House File 2192)
45. Rep. Frank Moe (D-Bemidji) would raise local sales and use taxes there. (House File 1103)
46. Rep. Bernie Lieder (D-Crookston) wants to raise local sales and use taxes in Crookston. (House File 1820)
47. Rep. Will Morgan (D-Burnsville) wants to create special tax increment financing districts in Burnsville. These districts often shift property tax burdens onto current landowners for years. (House File 1054)
48. Rep. Carolyn Laine (D-Columbia Heights) wants to create a special tax increment financing district in Columbia Heights. (House File 1879)
49. Rep. Carolyn Laine (D-Columbia Heights) wants to create a tax increment financing district in Fridley. (House File 2121)
50. Rep. Terry Morrow (D-St. Peter) wants a new local sales tax authorized for North Mankato. (House File 108)
51. Rep. Bill Hilty (D-Finlayson) wants a new local sales tax authorized for Cloquet. (House File 885)
52. Rep. Dave Dill (D-Crane Lake) would extend local sales taxes in Cook County. (House File 1894)
53. Rep. Mike Jaros (D-Duluth) to raise taxes on food and beverages in Duluth to help to pay for a new hockey arena in that city. (House File 134)
54. Rep. Rick Hansen (D-South Saint Paul) wants to impose a food and beverage tax on Lilydale. (House File 2102)
55. Rep. Dave Dill (D-Crane Lake) would impose an Ely local sales & use tax. (House File 2059)
15. FEE INCREASES AHEAD
56. Rep. Bill Hilty (D- Finlayson) wants to raise the fees on mortgage firm's employees by 588 percent (up from $850 to $5,000) for new licenses and by 555 percent (up from $450 to $2,500) for license renewals. (House File 2305)
57. Rep. Shelley Madore (D-Apple Valley) wants to expand the levy for the Metro Transportation District to all the counties in the Metro Area. (House File 2140)
58. Rep. Larry Haws (D-St. Cloud) would raise fees for county & regional jails. )House File 161)
59. Rep. Brita Sailer (D-Park Rapids) wants to raise fees on video and electronic equipment sales. (House File 854)
60. Rep. Joe Atkins (D-Inver Grove Heights) wants to impose an extra $250 fee on cigarette manufacturers. (House File 1737)
61. Rep. Erin Murphy (D-St. Paul) wants to raise pharmacy fees automatically on an annual basis. (House File 1722)
62. Rep. Rick Hansen (D-South Saint Paul) wants to raise fees on deer hunters. (House File 278)
