HF 3149 - 3rd Reading

In a 10 hour 23 minute session, debate on the final amended bill began at the 9 hour 35 minute mark. The first speaker (Rep. Simpson) got up and reminded members of all of the provisions that the DFL's new "friends", the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, were against - raising taxes on specific businesses, raising utility rates, reducing R&D tax credits among other things. Rep. Garafalo spoke about how this was the wrong time and the wrong economy to raise property taxes as this bill does. With record foreclosures, he said, increasing property taxes is just plain wrong he said. Rep. Seifert asked for another call of the house, which could mean that they want a vote soon and (as Anonymous corrected me the other night) he wants to make sure that all members vote on this bill - get them on the record. After 5 minutes, Rep. Sertich asked that the clerk close the rolls and that the Sgt At Arms be instructed to bring the missing members in. As that was happening Rep. Lanning got up and spoke against the bill. He brought up that there was a NEW formula for distribution of Local Government Aid that would actually REDUCE aid to most cities! Even Minneapolis, Duluth, St. Cloud, the regional centers AND small cities will all get less under a new formula that is being developed by Democrats! This is a huge thing as the DFL candidatess hammered Republican legislators over the last two election cycles because of reductions in LGA. He also mentioned that this bill is taking away the real estate tax deduction from state income taxes! (Ed: Yet Rep. Lenczewski insists this bill is "revenue neutral"? Maybe to the government but certainly NOT to the taxpayers!) Rep Lanning also brought up that the Dept of Revenue does not know how they are going to implement this bill. Rep. Marquardt got up and insisted that this is a property tax relief bill. The voters need to keep this in mind. He insists that a bill that will only give tax relief to a small portion of Minnesotans but will leave the rest of us high and dry.

Rep. Seifert got up and spoke about how 18 months ago, voters voted for legislators that said that they were going to fix major issues and they have done nothing. He then called this bill the "Death Star" of tax policy - saying that there is no tax relief for the majority of Minnesotans...that this bill does more harm than good. He repeated Commissioner Einess' comments that the majority of Minnesotans will end up on the losing end of this bill! He said that this is not a "governor friendly" bill...that it hurts EVERYBODY not just "the rich".

Rep. Lenczewski spoke last in defense of her bill and basically said that tax increases=property tax relief. Now it is true that some people will have their property taxes go down, but what good is THAT when all of their other taxes GO UP? That is the basic thing that the DFL just doesn't get!

THE HOUSE IS UNDER CALL...EVERYONE SHALL VOTE and vote they did. The bill passed pretty much along party lines - 80 to 52. Some notable votes on this bill:

DFLer's Julie Bunn, Tony Cornish, Denise Dittrich, Thomas Huntley and Bev Scalze all voted against the tax bill. No Republicans voted for it.

For my friends to the south and east of me in the 2nd Congressional district you should know that Will Morgan (Savage, Burnsville), Shelley Madore (Apple Valley) Sandra Maisin (Eagan) and David Bly (Rice County) ALL VOTED to raise your taxes!

HF 3149 - On The Floor Now

I got an email from an acquaintance on Capital Hill that said that the Omnibus Tax Bill is being debated on the floor now. They never did fix the increase of taxes in Committee as was originally thought. To review...according the the Commissioner of the Department of Revenue this bill will raise taxes for 69% of all Minnesotans.

I will be live blogging.....

3:29 - the House is debating an amendment (I'll have to look it up) and while "answering" a question from Rep. Garafalo continued to state that this bill...sans changes...is still "revenue neutral. My source said that he will try to get information to me as he gets it as well.

3:32 - Rep. Lenczewski gave a valiant defense of the beleaguered taxpayer - how they are struggling to make ends meet. This from someone who voted for sales tax and gas tax increases.

3:34 - Did she just call the Department of Revenue Commissioner a liar? She just said that she totally DISCOUNTED the Commissioners testimony because she didn't believe his numbers!

One thing I didn't get a chance to blog on due to personal time eating up my blogging time was the fact that this bill authorized sales tax increases in the following cities (without benefit of referendum as our state constitution requires): Mankato, Cook County, City of Clearwater, North Mankato and Winona and is authorizing a Mortgage and Deed Tax for St. Louis, Dakota and Anoka Counties. Rep. Simpson has an amendment on the floor that would remove those provisions. It also keeps JOBZ which Rep. Lenczewski's bill is killing. Most of the speakers have been rural legislators who are begging to keep their jobs. The amendment failed mostly on party lines.

While this was going on I got an interesting email from my source. His email said that the majority did not tell the minority about the changes (the Lenczewski Amendment) until AFTER they got out of their caucus meetings...even though the majority leadership knew GOING INTO CAUCUS that the Amendment was coming. Many members of the minority were upset about this...

One thing I am noticing about this debate is that it really is a debate that pits the outstate legislators against the Hennepin/Ramsey County leadership. It is a troubling dynamic...

Laugh line of the night. Rep. Simpson has another amendment on the floor to save JOBZ. Rep. Lenczewski, in urging a no vote said "we all pay more taxes when others don't pay their fair share". This coming from the party whose presumed Senatorial candidate has had 2 months worth of tax woes????? The Amendment was defeated 63-69.

Rep. Garafolo has an Amendment on the floor removing a provision that will remove rural towns out of the transportation taxing authority (a provision that was added by Rep. Shelly Madore). Rather than raising this tax on cities that are in the transit service areas (remember this is an transit tax that is is ADDITION to the Transportation Bill) this will raise taxes on the farmers and rural residents that don't ride metro transit at all!

OK - they are still debating HF 3149 and I got interrupted by a couple of calls. One amendment that was put forward (by Rep. Howes) was an amendment for a STATE gas tax holiday. Needless to say this one went down in flames.

Rep Erhardt has an amendment on the floor that would give property tax relief in 2008. He will pay for this by reversing the June tax accelerator payments. He mentioned that the Lenczewski bill had RENTERS tax relief for 2008 but nothing for property owners. Rep. Lenczewski in her opposition for the amendment said that this will take money away from Minneapolis and St. Paul and give it to everyone else. I think I mentioned this before but I am stunned at how much tonights debate has been an outstate vs. Twin Cities debate and the Cities are making out like bandits! The Erhardt Amendment failed.

Rep. Erickson has an amendment up to excempt Social Security income from income taxes. Rep. Lenczewski got up in opposition and said that this will "cost the STATE $250 million". SHE THINKS IT IS HER MONEY BEFORE YOU EARN IT PEOPLE!!!!!

I don't know if it is on my end or the Capitals end, but I am having streaming issues so I am going to shut it down for the final couple of amendments so that I can have an uninterrupted stream for the final vote on the bill.

Well I got my streaming issues fixed and we are STILL working on amendments. There are 32 proposed amendments on the docket right now. There are three that have yet to be voted on and the House is under call (lacking a quorum). I may not last until the floor debate folks. If I don't make it, I will do a postmortem on the final floor debate in the morning.

Reading HF 3149

I am reading through HF 31349 and listening to 5 plus hours of testimony in the House Tax Committee, just so you do not have to dear readers! I will be posting my thoughts on areas of the bill (and the testimony) that tickle my fancy (and there have been a couple) through out the day today so check in with Ladies Logic often.

While you are waiting, you may want to check out this press release from the Taxpayers League. I will definitely post on this once I get to the right part of the bill and testimony.

HF3149 - The Omnibus Tax Bill

While researching HF 3149, I heard a report that an item in this bill would actually raise property taxes on 65% of all Minnesotans when it is sold to us as a reduction. There was testimony to such in the first committee hearing. I am looking for that particular testimony (and passage in the bill) and will post on those as soon as I find them, but to start you off, see how the Minnesota Legislature is going to RAISE your utility bills (portion starts on line 60.29).

There is testimony from the Excel Energy rep in the Committee Hearing (scroll down to House Tax Committee for video). It starts at approximately the 1:07 mark. Listen to the lecture that he gets from members of the committee.