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State Representative Joe Atkins

583 State Office BuildingState Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
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For more information contact: Christina Gosack 651-296-5524

Posted: 2005-12-05 00:00:00
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Atkins Calls for Property Tax Relief

State Representative Joe Atkins of Inver Grove Heights is pushing for state surplus revenues to be used for property tax relief.

“Every person I talk to is facing a huge property tax increase on their home this year," said Atkins. The combination of school, city and county tax levies is leading to proposed property tax hikes of 20% or more, the largest increases in over a decade. “There are some folks, particularly seniors on a fixed income and young families, who are really being squeezed and don’t know where to turn,” he added.

The State of Minnesota has experienced the largest financial turnaround in its history during Atkins’ time in office. When Representative Atkins was elected to the legislature in 2002, the state faced the largest deficit in its history, a record $4.5 billion shortfall. Today, the state has a $1 billion surplus.

Representative Atkins has a long history of working to hold down property taxes. When he was the mayor of Inver Grove Heights from 1993 – 2002, the community’s property tax rate went from one of the highest to the third lowest in the state for communities of 20,000 residents or more.

Atkins has called upon his fellow lawmakers to utilize at least a portion of the surplus for property tax relief. “We probably can’t apply the entire surplus to property tax relief, but we need to help as much as we can. If we don’t, huge property tax increases will create a crisis for many families,” he said.

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