The House of Representatives passes the Tax and Transportation Bills

We started H .F. 1444, the House Tax Bill, at Noon and finally voted around 8:50 P.M..  And that was in spite of the fact that we finished the amendments around 3:00.  We have some members that like to deliver lectures rather than making relevant comments. The vote was 69-64.

The bill does pay back the $854 million IOU to Minnesota’s schools through a temporary income tax surcharge on the wealthiest 0.5%of Minnesotans (those with a taxable income greater than $500,000 per year for joint filer). It eliminates corporate loopholes that allow corporations to shelter profits overseas and eliminates other subsidies that are outdated, ineffective, or currently unaffordable.

The Omnibus Transportation Finance Bill was also taken up and passed 101-30.  It is a fairly moderate bill due to financial constraints.  It does include $1.7 billion over the biennium for state road construction.  It  does broaden the authority of counties throughout Minnesota to impose an annual wheelage tax of $10 by an annual vote of individual county boards. Dakota County has been using the revenue from the wheelage tax to do maintenance projects like overlays.