Dear Neighbor,
I just wanted to pass along word that a special legislative session is tentatively scheduled for Sept. 9 to discuss disaster relief after storms ripped through the state in June.
We anticipated disaster relief would be our only item of business in a special session, but an interesting twist is developing. Gov. Mark Dayton said at Farmfest today a new law which applies the state sales tax to farm machinery repairs and other types of repair work was a bad mistake and he supports rescinding it during the special session.
Many of us in Greater Minnesota have been railing against the new tax passed by Dayton and fellow Democrats earlier this year. I have spoken out strongly against it and am pleased to hear some of those who led the tax to passage are starting to hear our message. It remains to be seen if we can execute a repeal, but it would be a major victory for farmers if we can spare them from this new tax.
We also are working to repeal a warehousing tax, which would impact ag. inputs. That tax does not go into effect until April of 2014 and the governor continues to express reluctance over taking that up in the special session. He says it could be further examined in the regular 2014 session, which starts in February.
I will keep you posted.
Sincerely,
Paul