Good morning, and happy Wednesday.
Democrats in the Minnesota House say their plans for tax cuts will help families with child care, property taxes and housing. MPR’s Brian Bakst reports the House DFL plan includes bigger and more accessible renter and homestead credits. It also establishes new dependent care tax credits for filers with children under five years old. Another one-time child tax credit of up to $3,000 per child helps round out an overall proposal that provides $3 billion in tax cuts over three years. House Taxes Committee Chair Paul Marquart contrasted it with an $8 billion income tax cut plan in the Senate. “Rather than do a little bit to help a few and those who need it, we thought how can we really focus? How can we move the dial really make a difference in the lives of our families, our workers and our senior citizens? And that's what our tax bill does.” Both proposals make use of a record state budget surplus. Lawmakers will spend the remaining weeks of the legislative session passing their plans and trying to agree on a compromise.
The Senate plan would slice income and Social Security taxes. As mentioned, it would cut taxes by $8 billion over three years. Senate Taxes Committee Chair Carla Nelson, R-Rochester, said Tuesday that’s achievable given a record budget surplus. “This bill will do much needed tax relief. Minnesota continues to be a high-taxed state. We're at a time where our state coffers are full. And yet Minnesotans are struggling.” State Revenue Commissioner Robert Doty said the GOP plan skews the tax cuts to people making the most. “This bill has a large price tag, but does not increase the fairness of our tax system by helping low to middle income Minnesotans or allow for significant investments in public services as part of the rest of the budget.” The sheer size of the Senate tax cut means their spending plans are much smaller than House proposals. It will all be the subject of negotiations as the session goes on.
The public safety bill in the Minnesota Senate cleared its final committee Tuesday and will soon be up for a vote of the full Senate. MPR’s Tim Pugmire reports the Finance Committee advanced the $200 million bill on a divided voice vote. Senate Republicans designed the legislation to meet their get-tough approach to rising crime. It includes money for police recruitment, courts, prisons and more. Republican Sen. Warren Limmer of Maple Grove, the chair of the public safety committee, said his bill will keep the streets safer by touching all aspects of the criminal justice system. “We seem to be growing into a lawless society in parts of Minneapolis and St. Paul, as well as suburbs.” Department of Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell told the committee he thinks the Senate bill ignores some proven strategies. “Instead of investing in strategies that address both the state’s accountability and rehabilitation needs, the Senate omnibus bill focuses solely and significantly on increased punishment.” House Democrats have put together a much different public safety bill, which is currently going through a series of hearings.
President Joe Biden’s executive order to fix what’s known as the “family glitch” in the Affordable Care Act would allow thousands of Minnesotans to buy health insurance on the state exchange.The Star Tribune reports: Savage resident Allie Krueger, whose family has struggled to pay for coverage, was in the audience at Tuesday's event at the White House. Krueger lost her job as an entertainment manager during the pandemic and had to go on her husband's insurance. She found out that she and her toddler son did not qualify for ACA subsidies, and without them the family's insurance premiums amounted to about a quarter of their household income. "Hopefully nobody has to experience what we went through ... especially when you get laid off," Krueger said. "We obviously had to cut back, we had to be creative in what we were doing and use some of our savings." Shortly after she was laid off, she found out she was pregnant with twins. Krueger said she "just talked to anybody who would listen" about the situation — including calling Democratic U.S. Rep. Angie Craig. "I'm so thrilled that the administration is taking this long-overdue action to lower costs for working families like the Kruegers," Craig said in a statement.
The number of permits to build multi-family housing in St. Paul has plunged since voters in the city approved a rent control measure.The Pioneer Press reports: Some are laying blame for that slowdown on the rent control ordinance. Before approval of the ordinance, which will limit annual residential rent increases to 3 percent and takes effect May 1, developers warned that it would have a chilling effect on financing housing projects. Some firms have publicly announced they’ve chosen not to move forward with planned housing, at least for now. Others say they’re at the mercy of unforgiving investors. “The single most effective solution to address housing challenges is to produce more housing across the income spectrum,” said the Minnesota Multi Housing Association, in a statement. “When Mayor (Melvin) Carter came out in support of rent control and voters adopted the ballot measure, we warned that production would crater.” Still, officials caution that seeing significant variation from year to year in building activity is not uncommon. In 2017, for instance, there were 773 new units of housing built in St. Paul across all types of new residential construction, according to city data. Activity doubled in 2018 and 2019, when roughly 1,500 housing units were slated for construction in each year. | 