Greetings,
It was an honor to be on hand as Warunee Lampher (pictured above) earned United States of America citizenship Monday in St. Paul. Leela lives in our area and we attend the same church. She is one of 819 people from 109 countries who took their oath of citizenship Monday. Warunee or Leela, as she is more commonly called, is from Thailand and it was really inspiring to see how excited she and the other immigrants were to complete what was a lengthy process for them. Citizenship in this country is something many of us take for granted, but these immigrants worked extremely hard to obtain. None of us had a choice as to where we were born, but these folks chose to be Americans. Hats off to Leela and the other newest Americans.
As for legislative news, the House passed a bipartisan tax bill on Monday with the goal of simplifying Minnesota’s tax code and providing additional tax relief to middle-class Minnesotans. It would bring the first income tax rate cut for Minnesotans in nearly two decades by reducing the second tier income tax rate.
Through the House plan, two million Minnesotans would pay less in taxes through the House tax bill than they would pay through the governor’s proposal. The bipartisan support for the House bill paints a pretty clear picture for the governor as he tries to pitch his budget plan that would raise taxes on households of all income levels at a time of state surplus.
Without the House reforms, conforming to the federal tax code would cause nearly 970,000 filers to pay more. Instead, the House bill delivers the first income tax cut in nearly 20 years and more than 2.1 million Minnesota filers will benefit from a tax cut in tax year 2018.
Another section of the House’s supplemental budget package addresses transportation. After passing a law last session that made the largest transportation investment in state history without raising taxes, the House continues to prioritize roads and bridges. A bill the House approved this week uses surplus funds leveraged with trunk highway bonds to put $385 million more toward transportation needs this year.
A common-sense provision offered by Rep. Knoblach of St. Cloud will make additional lanes set to be constructed on I-94 permanent instead of temporary as planned. A project to smooth out the rough patch of 94 from Clearwater to Monticello called for installing temporary lanes at a cost of $35 million. The House approved providing $20 million more to make those temporary lanes permanent. It just makes good sense to do this project the right the first time rather than building temporary lanes and then tear them out knowing full well permanent ones are scheduled to be built a few years from now – with more traffic inconveniences and even higher costs to do it later.
On a more disappointing transportation note, it was appalling to see the Corridors of Commerce project plan MnDOT unveiled this week, awarding $469 million to fund four projects either in or very near the Twin Cities area. Even though I do support the I-94 expansion, Corridors of Commerce is a statewide program which was set up to help link up regional centers around the state by, for example, improving highways such as 23 in our area, 14 in southern Minnesota and 2 in northern Minnesota. Instead of linking regional centers together, this MnDOT plan focuses on linking the Twin Cities to regional centers. As far as I’m concerned, it’s nothing but a metro hub-and-spoke build-out that does not reflect the spirit of Corridors of Commerce.
On a quick side note, I was on KASM radio with Joe Gill Thursday morning to discuss a number of ag issues. I want to confirm a couple of provisions in the House’s tax bill that came up in our discussion. First, a provision the House passed would allow agricultural homestead treatment when the business entity that owns the agricultural land is different than the business entity that operates the farm. Also, the House tax bill allows for full Section 179 expensing, which permits the expensing of qualified equipment purchases in their year of purchase. Both of these provisions would be positive changes for farmers.
We are now entering the final two full weeks of the 2018 session, so look for more news soon as supplemental budget and tax negotiations take place between the House, the Senate and the governor.
Good luck,
Jeff