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Legislative News and Views - Rep. Ben Lien (DFL)

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Rep. Ben Lien - Legislative Report - March 28, 2014

Friday, March 28, 2014

Greetings from the House Floor,

 

On Friday, the Legislature passed HF 1777, which will provide more than $500 million in tax cuts for 1.4 million Minnesota families and businesses. The bill was negotiated by Governor Dayton, the House and the Senate after the House passed an initial version of the bill on March 6.  The bill includes the following:

 

·        Repeals all of the business- to-business taxes and the farm equipment repair tax passed last year.

·        Conforms the state tax code to the federal tax code for deductions.

·        Repeals the gift tax passed last year.

·        Raises the exemption on the estate tax to $2 million with a phase in over the next five years.

·        Provides more K-12 education equity revenue for schools across the state.

The Department of Revenue will contact folks who have already filed their 2013 taxes with information about amending returns. For more detailed information, please go to http://www.revenue.state.mn.us/Pages/law_changes.aspx.

Also, here is a link for a You Tube video of Commissioner Frans’ press conference regarding the new law http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_D1DRKWVj3k&feature=youtu.be.

On Wednesday, about a dozen legislators held a press conference to highlight work we’ve done on a Greater Minnesota economic development package. Major provisions of the package are:

·        Funding for broadband development across Greater Minnesota.

·        $15 million in property tax relief for agricultural homesteads.

·        Increased County Program Aid for counties that saw agricultural land values increase dramatically.

·        Investments for small business development, initiative foundations to assist existing small businesses and workforce training.

 

As a part of this package, I authored a bill to provide $500,000 to the 10 Small Business Development Centers around the state. The money will be divided evenly among the centers and will allow these centers to focus more time and energy on providing small businesses the technical assistance needed to succeed. 

I also had hearing on major bills for our border city communities last week. HF 2975 is a permanent appropriation for the Border City Enterprise and Development Zone and HF 3037 reduces the property taxes paid on all commercial/industrial properties in the border city communities of East Grand Forks, Moorhead, Dilworth and Breckenridge. These provisions were included in the Property Tax and Local Government Division’s report to the full House Tax Committee for a $3 million annual appropriation to the Border City Enterprise and Development Zone from 2016 to 2019, as well as a commercial/industrial property tax reduction to 1.7 % of the taxable market value of the property. The full House Tax Committee still needs to issue its omnibus bill for this session and enter negotiations with the Senate on a final bill; however, I do feel I am making significant progress on these crucial programs for our northwest Minnesota border city communities.

Thank You for the Opportunity to Serve,

Ben