The story of the spat provoked by House Tax Czar Greg David's remark in which he attributed elimination of the homestead credit to Governor Dayton was related here in Mr. Accountability: Greg Davids not ready to take hit on homestead credit property tax change.
The noise continued in articles from the Spring Grove Herald's In Minnesota, stable levy really means tax increase, (the papers is in Davids' district) to the Star Tribune's Jettisoned tax break sets off feud.
But Davids' fingerpointing is only part of the story. The part Minnesotans will become most familiar with is told in the Mankato Free Press's article, County set for 3 percent levy hike limit:
The Blue Earth County Board appears ready to approve a levy increase for next year’s taxes of no more than 3 percent. The amount of taxes that taxpayers would actually pay would rise 9.2 percent, for reasons that come mostly from changes in state law. . . .
. . .Blue county, red queen
In the novel upon which “Alice in Wonderland” is based, Alice tells the Red Queen that she’s used to actually getting somewhere when she runs.
The caustic reply: “A slow sort of country!” said the Queen. “Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. ...”
Changes in state tax law
Local governments across the state are feeling a bit like Alice this fall. Even if they wanted to keep their budgets flat, they’d have to cut them.
That’s because of changes to something called the Market Value Homestead Credit, which basically had the state pay part of local governments’ tax levy.
That payment is going away, so taxpayers will be paying the part of the levy that the state used to pay for. In Blue Earth County, that payment was about $1.6 million. . . .
Read all the articles at the papers where they were first published.
The editor of the Spring Grove Herald thinks citizens will blame county officials for property tax hikes. Who should get the credit?
Image: The Red Queen and Alice.
Related posts: This is not what reform looks like: Faribault paper calls out legislators on end of Homestead Credit
Mr. Accountability: Greg Davids not ready to take hit on homestead credit property tax change.
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