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State Representative Joe Hoppe
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-5066
For more information contact: Jodi Boyne 651-296-0640
HOUSE BRIEFS
Halfway Through the 2008 Session
Greetings!
Even though the traditional Easter Holiday recess comes early this year, it still marks the halfway point of the legislative session. We have about a month and a half behind us and about the same time left until we adjourn. Here’s a brief look at the first half of session and what may await us when we return.
We’ve completed work on three major bills. The first is a constitutional amendment to raise the sales tax by 3/8 of 1 percent with the money going toward environmental habitat protection, clean water and arts programs. You will have a chance to vote on the amendment at the polls in November. We also passed a bill to extend federal tax breaks to Minnesota income tax payers. If you have not filed your returns yet, you can see if the changes will affect you at http://taxes.state.mn.us. If you have filed but would benefit from any of the changes, you’ll need to file an amendment to your return. All the info is at the website, I encourage you to check it out.
But the biggest bill of the session so far was the transportation bill. No doubt you’ve already heard of the veto override and the resulting gas and sales tax increases, as well as the license tab and registration fee increases. I voted against the bill and to uphold the governor’s veto because I don’t think this is a good time to be raising taxes. We could have raised transportation spending without raising taxes. But ultimately the bill passed an the higher taxes will kick in over the coming months.
For the rest of session, our main goal is to balance the budget. We have a $935 million deficit, a slow economy and signs of more trouble on the horizon. Balancing the budget will require tough decisions, but the one thing we can’t do is place the burden on families by way of more tax increases. Getting the respective Democrat majorities in the House and Senate to go along will be tough. Remember that these are the majorities that proposed $5 billion worth of tax increases last year when we had a $2.2 billion surplus. Hopefully they recognize the stress people are under and accept that fiscal responsibility is necessary if we’re going to turn things around.
Have a wonderful and happy Easter with your family!
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