| For Immediate Release | For more information contact: |
| January 17, 2001 | Jeff Bakken (651-297-5600) |
ST. PAUL -- State Rep. Mark Buesgens (R-Jordan) announced Wednesday that he is the lead author of a bill that exempts active military servicemen and women stationed outside Minnesota from paying state income taxes.
Most military personnel stationed outside the state spend less than 30 days a year while on leave at home in Minnesota. Buesgens' bill allows these servicemen and women to deduct their military pay from their taxable state income.
"Men and women from Minnesota putting their lives on the line for our country shouldn't have to pay our high state income taxes," said Buesgens. "This common-sense bill will save our servicemen and women $5.5 million a year. That's not much more than Gov. Ventura's revenue department mistakenly sent to children, dead people and other people ineligible for last year's sales-tax rebate."
Buesgens also announced Wednesday that he is sponsoring three major tax reform bills that will be debated in the 2001 Legislative Session:
a significant, across-the-board income tax cut that cuts a half percent off the bottom and top income tax brackets and three-quarters off the middle income tax bracket; a repeal of the 1.5 percent "Sick Tax" that health care providers must pay every time one of their members visits a doctor or dentist -- the tax is not apparent to consumers because their insurance provider pays it, but the tax is ultimately passed on to consumers through higher premiums; and a referendum that asks voters if they want to amend the Minnesota Constitution to require a three-fifths majority in each house of the Legislature in order to pass into law any tax increases
"We've had 17 budget surpluses in a row and are the fourth-highest taxed state in the nation," said Buesgens. "Over the past two years, we've made significant progress in addressing this burden, but we still have a long way to go."
# # #