The Great Greater Minnesota Partisan LGA War continues in op-ed pages across the state. In Sunday Fargo Forum, deputy minority leader Paul Marquart, DFL-Dilworth, writes in Misleading letter ignored facts about 'lifeblood' of our cities:
Despite a $2 billion surplus this session, Drazkowski’s bill (HF 984) that he touted provided not a single new dime of LGA or direct property tax relief for rural homeowners while providing more than $1.3 billion of tax relief for wealthy metro business owners. That’s right – no property tax relief for senior citizens who will see no increase in their Social Security benefits this year, but huge tax breaks for the Canadian owners of the Mall of America. Those are the facts.
LGA helps keep property taxes affordable. Your property taxes will be higher in 2016 because of the failure to invest more in LGA. This session we need to use part of the huge budget surplus to increase LGA to our rural communities and we should invest in much needed property tax relief for our farmers.
Senior citizens, families, farmers and small businesses in rural Minnesota need this property tax relief a lot more than wealthy skyscraper and mall owners in the metro area.
Should the legislature pass a tax bill that begins to restore cuts to LGA, Bluestem has to wonder which party will be more effective in marketing itself on loving Greater Minnesota more. It does seem like the Republican Party brands itself on hating "the metro" more, which is an entirely different thing.
Cartoon: A couple of foxes working it out.
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