ST. PAUL – State Representative Bob Gunther (R-Fairmont) said Governor Dayton’s recent veto of an $800 million tax relief proposal was a “terrible decision” that will cause continued financial pain to people across Minnesota.
“It’s very clear the governor likes finding new ways to tax people and has difficulty giving tax dollars back,” Gunther said. “This was evident last biennium when he raised taxes and fees on hardworking Minnesotans by $2 billion. It’s tough for him to go back on his principles.”
Gunther said the tax relief plan targeted hundreds of thousands of residents. This included parents through the expansion of the working family tax credit and the childcare tax credit; Main Street business owners with the repeal of the commercial-industrial property tax off their first $100,000 of property value - which was expected to save the average business owner roughly $1,000 a year; farmers with some property tax relief from school bond levies; and college graduates with a student loan tax credit.
Also lost by the governor’s action was disaster relief aid to the City of Madelia, which Gunther said was necessary after its downtown was devastated by a fire earlier this year.
“The $1.2 million Madelia needed to rebuild is now gone thanks to the governor’s stubbornness,” Gunther said. “He promised he would take care of Madelia, and now he’s done nothing.”
Gunther said he could have understood the governor’s action if the approved tax bill was partisan. But in reality, it received broad bipartisan support by a vote of 123-10 in the Republican-led House and 55-12 in the DFL-led Senate, equaling 89 percent support from the entire legislature. Gunther said the tax relief compromise was the most bipartisan tax bill vetoed in the past 30 years.
“This bill targeted the working poor and other middle class residents who simply want to be successful Minnesota citizens,” Gunther said. “The governor’s decision is personal and injurious to people across this state, and in the case of Madelia’s residents, will cause suffering beyond belief.”