Last week, the Freeborn County Board of Commissioners voted to implement a new $10 wheelage tax on every car and truck you register at the Department of Motor Vehicles. Hard-working taxpayers will be paying more, and we have Rep. Shannon Savick to thank.

Earlier this month, the nonpartisan Minnesota Department of Revenue reported that Minnesotans in every income level would see higher taxes thanks to Gov. Mark Dayton and Democratic majorities’ tax plan. I don’t remember Rep. Savick ever promising to make everyone pay more, which makes this even more disappointing.

Thanks to Rep. Savick’s vote on the transportation finance bill, the Freeborn County commissioners were allowed to unilaterally, without public approval, impose a new $10 wheelage tax on all car and truck registrations. This is an extremely regressive tax that hits low and middle-income families hardest.

This tax is just one of many regressive tax increases that Rep. Savick supported this session, including taxes on cigarettes, as well as tax increases that didn’t make it into the final bill, such as taxes on beer, clothes and other everyday items.

Rather than simply spending what we were taking in — which amounted to almost billion dollars more than the last budget — Rep. Shannon Savick and Democrats voted to increase spending by about $3 billion, and leave us, the hard-working taxpayers, to pay the tab.

There was a time when Democratic legislators, and Gov. Dayton promised that the rich would be paying more in taxes and that middle and low-income Minnesotans would be shielded from their policies. Whatever happened to that?

But they aren’t done yet. Democratic legislators are already discussing raising taxes again next session.

I hope you’ll contact Rep. Savick and urge her to stop making Minnesotans pay more for wasteful spending. We can’t afford more of the same from Rep. Shannon Savick.

 

Carol Nelson

Clarks Grove