Taxes

Our top three list for the 2013 Minnesota Legislative Session

By Nan Madden, Minnesota Budget Bites

The 2013 Minnesota Legislature faces some of the most critical issues in generations when it meets for the first time today. Minnesota faces a $1.1 billion shortfall in FY 2014-15 ($2.0 billion when inflation is included) and is suffering from years of deficits, budget gimmicks and quick fixes.

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Minnesota Budget Bites

As Minnesota legislative session starts, protesters press Dayton, DFL to raise taxes on the rich

By Jacob Wheeler, The Uptake

The 2013 Legislative session began today in St. Paul with protesters outside the Capitol in St. Paul demanding that the newly elected Democratic majorities raise taxes on the wealthy. Meanwhile, inside the Capitol, DFL legislators and DFL Gov. Mark Dayton were deciding whether they have the political will to carry out a tax-the-rich promise that has been a traditional part of Democratic politics for decades — a promise the DFL rarely has had the clout to carry out.

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DFL legislators do indeed have a mandate

By Eric Ferguson, Minnesota Progressive Project

The first session of the new legislature with DFL majorities opens tomorrow [Tues, 1/8]. Anyone following the coverage and commentary sees the media and DFL legislators fretting about being accused of overreach if they do what they were elected to do. My choice of the word "fretting" might imply I don't take those concerns seriously, and, well, that's mostly right. Too many have it in their heads that the reason the GOP majorities were so short-lived was that they overreached. "Overreached" implies that the voters liked the GOP agenda, but just wanted a bit less of it. However, the GOP agenda was pretty thoroughly rejected --- there's no other way to read it when it lasts just two years and the voters could have blamed the DFL governor, but chose instead to give him a friendly legislature. That message wasn't, "You overreached." It was, "Please go away."

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Minnesota Progressive Project

No pitchforks yet: Rural MN gets pretty grumpy about farm bill programs in fiscal cliff deal

By Sally Jo Sorensen, Bluestem Prairie

Blue Dog Collin Peterson is angry about the short shift farm programs got in the fiscal cliff deal. Minnesota's Land Stewardship Project, which works on local food, sustainable farming and economic justice issues in rural Minnesota, isn't pleased either.

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Bluestem Prairie

MN Revenue Commissioner talks tax reform with Twin Cities' business owners of color, state's high sales taxes at issue

By Charles Hallman, Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder

On December 21, Revenue Commissioner Myron Frans held the second of two minority business tax forums at African Development Center in Minneapolis. It was part of an effort by the Minnesota Department of Revenue to “get as much feedback as possible about tax reform and how the tax code impacts small businesses to ensure [Frans] is giving the best advice to Governor Dayton as he puts together his tax package for the 2012 legislative session,” according to a department of revenue community invite.

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10 reasons why the fiscal cliff deal is bad for America

By David Schultz, Schultz's Take

Repeatedly one hears the definition of “compromise” as one where no one gets all that they want. Perhaps this is true in some cases, but generally compromises also mean that the deal struck is beneficial in some ways. If that is the case, this did not happen here.

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Schultz's Take

America's real problem isn't the Fiscal Cliff, it's the Fiscal Canyon

By David Schultz, Schultz's Take

The current Congress may or may not address the Fiscal Cliff before 2012 ends. But even if it does, the odds are that any solution it affixes will fail to solve a problem that has been at least 30 years in making. The real Fiscal Cliff, or rather the Fiscal Canyon, is the longer-term disinvestment and neglect this country has made in education, infrastructure, and attending to the structural inequalities in the United States that are driving most of the problems we face in the short and long term.

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Schultz's Take

Most who don't owe federal income taxes are working or elderly

By Nan Madden, Minnesota Budget Bites

The question of who is in the “47 percent” still resonates. I found that out when I spoke at a public policy forum held by AccountAbility Minnesota about what’s at stake for Minnesota’s low-income families in the federal and state tax policy debates.

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Minnesota Budget Bites

Minnesota Revenue Commissioner Myron Frans talks taxes

By Dale Connelly, KFAI Radio

Minnesota’s Revenue Commissioner, Myron Frans, has been traveling around the state for much of the past year, carrying a three legged stool as a prop while he gives a presentation on our tax system. If it sounds like a big night out, you could be right. Tax policy is going to be a major issue during the coming legislative session in St. Paul.

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Where does the Minnesota state budget stand?

By Erik Hare, Barataria

The Minnesota Legislative session is less than a month away. With the DFL in control of the House, Senate, and Governor’s office for the first time since 1990 we can expect that, at the very least, everything will operate differently than it has in a long time. This is a good time to look around and back to a complete understanding of the state of the state budget. The most contentious parts have always been taxes, so we should start with them.

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Barataria
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