No votes for Dayton tax plan

Amid charges of “political theater,” Republicans put a version of Gov. Mark Dayton’s tax increase plan to a vote on the House floor. No one voted for it.

Rep. Pat Garofalo (R-Farmington) offered the plan in the form of a minority report to HF451, a federal tax conformity bill. Dayton’s original budget proposal included nearly $4.13 billion in new revenues, mostly through taxes on the state’s highest income earners. On Feb. 28, he scrapped a temporary surtax proposal on incomes over $500,000. It would have brought in $918 million.

House members voted 131-0 against the minority report March 3. Sponsored by Rep. Greg Davids (R-Preston), the bill now moves to the House Ways and Means Committee.

“I’m extending this as an offer and a courtesy to the minority party,” Garofalo said. He noted that DFL lawmakers brought Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s budget plans up for a vote when they were in the majority.

House Minority Leader Paul Thissen (DFL-Mpls) accused Republicans of “acting as armchair quarterbacks,” playing games with the governor’s budget plan instead of working on their own.

“This is political theater, like a magician snapping his fingers over here, while he tries to steal your watch over there,” Thissen said.

Despite the one-sided vote tally, DFLers and Republicans had very different opinions of Dayton’s plan to raise taxes.

“This is a job killer, folks,” said Rep. Sarah Anderson (R-Plymouth). “We need to send a message to the citizens and to businesses that if they want to live in Minnesota, we want you to come here.”

Rep. Tom Rukavina (DFL-Virginia) said Pawlenty’s no-new-taxes policy failed to create jobs in Minnesota. He predicted the session would not end without some kind of tax increase being passed.

“You’re going to have to find some revenue to get us out of this mess eventually,” Rukavina said.