Greetings from the Floor,
The Tax Committee spent a lot of time this week discussing ways Minnesota can respond to the Tax Cut and Jobs Act, the federal tax overhaul passed at the end of 2017. The options are do nothing (which is the status quo), conform completely or partially conform. Doing nothing may add to Minnesotans’ tax bills, and will certainly cost additional time in tax preparation. Conforming completely is also likely to add to Minnesotans’ tax bills, but would be more efficient for people to file taxes. Partial conformity would be adopting changes of the federal tax code, and making changes to the state tax code like adding state deductions to make up for eliminated federal deductions or phasing in new policies of the federal tax code over time. I would like to see conformity happen as soon as possible; however, we cannot make the necessary changes in time to file taxes this year. The Department of Revenue needs 6-8 months in order to get ready for people to file under any conformity changes. One idea we discussed was allowing conformity to be retroactive for tax year 2018.
Federal tax conformity happens just about every biennium. Most conformity changes are minor as the federal tax code is updated year to year. The Tax Cut and Jobs Act brought such sweeping changes that we must act accordingly with a big overhaul to the Minnesota tax code. Issues like charitable giving, unreimbursed employee expenses, non-profit organization operations and home ownership all play into conformity decisions. The real question is do we enact changes to meet everyone’s individual circumstances or adopt more broad policies to benefit as many as possible. The committee will begin hearing bills next week, and conformity will certainly be a major theme all session.
The University of Minnesota Board of Regents candidates began meeting with legislators this week. Within the next month or so the Legislature will elect four new regents to serve on the university’s governing board. We elect new regent candidates every two years, and the process starts with the Regent Candidate Advisory Council’s (RCAC) recommendations. 47 people applied to the RCAC and the council advanced 16 candidates to the Legislature. These candidates, and others who hope to be nominated for consideration by individual legislators, will first meet with members of the House and Senate Higher Education Committees as we advance a slate of candidates for election by the entire Legislature to fill each of the vacant positions. At any time after the RCAC recommendations, any individual legislator can nominate a candidate for consideration. This year there are 4 seats on the Board of Regents that will come to term; the 5thCongressional District seat, the student seat and two at-large seats. I have met with a handful of the candidates, and will continue meeting with them next week.
I introduced five more bills this week. HF258 (reimbursement adjustments for non-profit nursing homes in Moorhead), HF298 (changes to background checks for parents who are guardians of adult children) and HF330 (Division of Vehicle Services tax and fee exemptions for disabled veterans) are all bills on which I’ve worked over the last couple of years. Another bill I’ve introduced in past sessions is HF356, which would allow for electronic ticketing of charitable gaming paddlewheel games (currently the wheel aspect of these games can be electronic, but the tickets must be paper). The change in law to allow electronic wheels occurred in 2012 when funding for the U.S. Bank Stadium was passed. HF356 would clean up statutes for consistency with these games. I also introduced HF293, which would reduce taxes paid by charitable gaming organizations. This tax cut would allow the organizations to put more money into their community missions, and keep the necessary funding available to pay the bonds on U.S. Bank Stadium.
Thank You for the Opportunity to Serve,
Ben