To the editor:
This past week, the Office of Management and Budget announced that Minnesota’s budget surplus has officially grown from $850 million to $1.23 billion for this biennium. This surplus was created by hard working families and businesses that have driven our economy forward and out of the recession.
To make sure our economy continues to move forward, the House has already proposed $500 million in tax cuts for middle class families and businesses. $200 million of those cuts would come in the form of federal tax conformity. Of that $200 million, $111 million would go towards middle income married families, $36 million would go towards low income working families, and $26.4 million would go towards students and parents trying to pay for college and paying off student loans. $300 million would also be used to repeal three business to business taxes that affect ware housing services, telecommunications equipment, and farming equipment. I’m happy to see the House moving so quickly to provide this kind of tax relief for families and businesses in our area.
As we continue our work this session, we’ll be focusing on several other key initiatives. First, we want to pass a statewide bonding bill that helps fund local infrastructure and construction projects in our communities. The projects help preserve important community assets for the long term while putting people back to work in the short term. Second, we want to provide a pay increase for home and community based long term care providers. Last session, we provided the first rate increase for nursing homes in years. This session, we’d like to do the same for these care providers. The last key initiative will be raising the minimum wage. Already, we’ve started holding hearings to determine just what kind of an increase will be put in place. The final bill should be ready to go within the next week or so.
Even after just one week this legislative session has been very productive. I look forward to seeing the progress we can make as we move forward.
Sandra Masin