Motus Operandi ad infinitum...

In an email, Judi Boyne writes:

The House Democrats held a news conference this afternoon to announce that property taxes have gone up. Representative Paul Marquardt offered no solutions to provide any immediate relief or long term reform for property taxes. The 40-minute news conference as summed up by one reporter: "you brought us here to complain but offered no solution."

According to a nonpartisan House Research report, property taxes on homesteads will go up by an average of 6.5% (their value went up by 5.3%). The property taxes on all classes of property taxes are expected to increase by 8.9%, which is less than the 9.4% in market value. This will result in a $600 million increase in property taxes.

Members of the Capitol Press Corps noted that this seemed like a smaller increase than years past, which could mean property taxes are headed in the right direction.

The only solution the House Democrats mentioned was their plan to raise $250 million in revenue through tax compliance and the closing of FOC loopholes. They also advocated for LGA increases, which Representative Paul Marquardt said is direct relief (dollar for dollar) to taxpayers.

Yeah... that's their solution to rising property taxes--raise other taxes through the roof, while telling the taxpayers that they'll get at least as much out of it as they put in--the old "cast thy bread upon the waters..." meme.

The problem is, rather than asking taxpayers to "cast their bread upon the waters," their intentions are to instead force taxpayers to cast their hard-earned money upon the barren-desert-which-shall-never-be quenched. Thankfully, the MN GOP is fighting the good fight, and counters with:

House Research has figures that show that for every dollar of LGA the state provides, homeowners receive about 38% to 42%, Marquardt said.

House Republican Leader Marty Seifert addressed the Capitol Press Corps immediately following the Democrat news conference. His comments
included:

- Property taxes have gone up and no one is more concerned about providing relief than House Republicans.

- You can't solve a $600 million problem with $250 million.

- House Republicans proposed an immediate 15% reduction in property taxes with control mechanisms on local government.

- Enough is enough. We need specific solutions with control mechanisms.

We should pass Representative Sviggum's proposal to provide the immediate relief and then spend the rest of the session figuring our long-term reform.

- We don't need to raise taxes. We have a $2.2 billion surplus. We should stop throwing a wet blanket on our economy and focus on providing tax relief and living within our means.

When will enough taxpayer bloodletting be enough for the Minnesota DFL?

Well, to quote the old song, "How deep is the ocean--how high is the sky?"
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