Greetings from the Floor,
The Greater Minnesota Economic Development Committee began meeting on Wednesday this week. The committee chair, Rep. Gene Pelowski, presented on mini sessions from the late 1980s and 1990s. The mini sessions were actual House Committee meetings that took place around the state. Committees would go out to various communities and hold hearings on local issues like work force development, infrastructure and education. Some governors then held State of the State speeches in these communities. Mini sessions were a great way to bring the Legislature’s work to the people of Minnesota, and highlight local needs. One result of the mini session meetings was the development of a composite engineering program at Winona State University.
The Higher Education Committee heard overviews from the various Minnesota ethnic councils this week. These included presentations from the Minnesota Council on Latino Affairs, Council for Minnesotan’s of African Heritage and Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans. The focus of these presentations was to highlight what these councils do, and bring ideas to help more people of color attain higher education. We also heard from the University of Minnesota about the impacts of the federal government shutdown. The biggest impact of the shutdown was on the university’s research work. Even though the shutdown was resolved in a month, some research work will be delayed for a year as seasonal research around natural resources, the environment and agriculture needs to happen at certain times of the year.
The Tax Committee started hearing bills this week. One of the bills with local significance was HF37. Current law allows for a tax credit of $2,000 for families who experienced stillbirths as long as the stillbirth occurred in Minnesota. HF37 would expand the credit for stillbirths that occur out of state when the families are Minnesota residents. Rep. Hertaus is the chief author of the bill, and worked on the issue last year (it was included as a provision in the vetoed Omnibus Tax Bill last session). I am a co-author on the bill, and was made aware of the situation when some Moorhead residents reached out to me last year. This is a good policy that will ease the pain of stillbirths to more Minnesota families.
The Tax Committee also heard an overview by the Legislative Auditor’s office on the Minnesota Research Tax Credit. The Legislative Auditor is a function of the Legislature that oversees the implementation of laws by state agencies to be sure laws are being carried out in accordance with the Legislature’s intent, and to be sure laws are meeting their purpose. The Research Tax Credit was created in 1981 with the intent of increasing jobs and wages through private sector development. The latest year for which data was presented was 2014 when $50.4 million dollars were claimed through the credit. That same year the state claimed 22% of the credit’s benefit; in other words, the state saw a 22% fiscal benefit from the credit as measured by increased jobs and wages against increased spending from the credit. The discussion after the presentation revolved around better ways to measure the effectiveness of the credit, and better ways to use the money spent on the credit. The committee also asked non-partisan research staff if information could be generated on all tax expenditures (like the Research Tax Credit) in Minnesota. Tax expenditures do not count in the state’s budget forecast, so it would be good to know exactly how much the state spends each year through the tax code and what the purpose is of these expenditures. The ultimate question is do we want to use expenditures to incentivize certain behaviors or compensate people for certain expenses they already make.
Thank You for the Opportunity to Serve,
Ben