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Legislative News and Views - Rep. Jeff Howe (R)

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Stearns to receive storm aid

Monday, August 26, 2013

To the editor,

 

A special session of the Minnesota Legislature will take place Sept. 9 to appropriate disaster relief funding for recovery efforts following last June’s storm damage.

 

Stearns is among the 18 counties set to receive recovery aid. Statewide estimates indicate storms caused around $18 million in damage to our infrastructure. The state will need to cover 25 percent of that total in order to receive a 75-percent match from the federal government. Public hearings will take place before the special session in order to hammer out the details. Most of the storm damage took place in western, central and southern portions of the state.

 

It is disappointing that the special session agenda does not include repeal of the business-to-business taxes enacted earlier this year. New taxes on farm machinery repair, warehousing and telecommunications are particularly burdensome and I am concerned of the negative impacts they may bring to our economy. There was bipartisan support for repealing them in the special session and even Gov. Mark Dayton publicly opened the door to repealing the "very bad mistake" tax increases. But, in the end, that work was left off the agenda.

 

The new tax on farm equipment repair especially warranted immediate repeal. The fall harvest will take place before we can revisit this issue during the next regular session in February. Farmers will face larger bills to provide the necessary equipment repairs and maintenance required to complete their work in the fields. Smaller family farms could be hit the hardest because they operate on smaller profit margins and many times have older equipment.

 

We will have to find the revenue to eliminate these taxes and it won’t get any easier the longer we wait. I believe that there are projects that should be reevaluated, delayed or possibly eliminated that could provide the revenue needed. For example, we could have started by using the $90 million currently earmarked for construction of a new Senate office building in St. Paul.

 

What is more important, taxpayers or a Senate office building? Are we governing for ourselves in St. Paul, or for the people of Minnesota?

 

It makes you wonder where the priorities rest. The longer we wait to repeal ill-advised taxes, the worse it will get. Hard-working Minnesotans and consumers in general will be damaged because enacted last spring.

 

Providing disaster relief is and should be our top priority during this special session. If agreement could not be reached on the other issues then it is very good that we will be taking care of our absolute top priority this special session: providing disaster relief.

 

Sincerely,

Rep. Jeff Howe