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State Representative Tara Mack
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-5506
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Email update
Tax relief a top priority for 2012
Dear Neighbor,
As the holiday season arrives, I wanted to take a minute to bring you up to speed on a few issues that might be of interest to you.
We are busy preparing a package of bills designed to provide tax relief for homeowners and businesses across Minnesota. This will be a top priority in the 2012 session.
The homeowners’ tax relief especially helps people who saw their local property taxes rise by 12 percent or more in 2012. For those homeowners, the plan increases the percentage of property taxes the state refunds from the current 60 percent to 90 percent. It also increases the maximum refund available to already eligible homeowners by 20 percent.
The best property tax relief is given directly to people who pay property taxes: homeowners and business owners. We are looking to provide an approximately 18-percent cut in the statewide property tax burden for Greater Minnesota commercial/industrial properties, and a 4-percent reduction for metro area commercial/industrial properties.
It has become abundantly clear the cost of doing business in Minnesota is too high. National retailers have said they are astonished at our high tax rates, which are among the country’s most expensive in terms of commercial industrial property taxes. This puts us at competitive disadvantage with our neighboring states.
Small businesses are the backbone of our economy and they are the ones who will lead us to an economic recovery. We have spent the last few months asking citizens, local officials and Main Street businesses what improvements the state can make to help them thrive. Below are some of the requests we heard and are working to enact in 2012:
?Freezing the state General Fund inflator starting in FY 2013;
?starting the process of getting the state out of the business of collecting property taxes altogether with a 20-year phase-out;
?improving the jobs climate by eliminating the statewide business property tax, one of most burdensome costs of owning a business property;
?providing the same dollar amount of relief to each business across Minnesota regardless of overall value;
?fixing abnormal increases in homeowner property tax
On a related taxes note, you may have noticed our local school district did not seek a levy increase through a referendum as some other districts did this month. This is largely because our school officials did well in fiscal planning and also because the Legislature appropriated more per-pupil funding for our district.
District 196 will receive $166 more per pupil than fiscal year 2011 in 2012 (up $60 per pupil compared to baseline). In 2013, the district will receive $473 more per pupil than in 2011 (up $291 per pupil compared to baseline).
Please continue to provide me with your thoughts on the issues. I am very thankful for the privilege of representing the wonderful people of our district.
Sincerely,
Tara
News Items
- 2013 survey results - (Posted: May 17 2013 5:08PM)
- Rep. Mack's 2013 survey - (Posted: Apr 22 2013 4:37PM)
- Budget news, health insurance exchange and more - (Posted: Mar 22 2013 12:00AM)
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