Column: Capitol Comments, by Shannon Savick

Just days ago, the House passed a bill that will provide tax relief for more than a million middle class Minnesotans.

The bill offers relief for families through federal conformity, relief for businesses through the repeal of three taxes and support for local schools through local optional revenue.

Federal conformity helps bring our state tax code in line with the federal tax code. This will not only simplify the process in the long run, it will also offer some significant tax savings for Minnesota families. Some key pieces of the conformity will be $111 million for the elimination of the so-called “marriage penalty,” $26.4 million for students and parents paying for college and paying off loans and $36 million for the working family credit.

The bill provides an additional $30.2 million for working families making less than $49,103 a year. That will boost overall funding for the working family credit to $66.2 million in 2014 and 2015.

Many of these tax changes will go into effect next year, but some could impact your 2013 tax return. If you’ve already filed your return, the Minnesota Department of Revenue will contact you to ask for any additional information they may need. If you haven’t filed yet, the department is asking that you wait to file until after April 3. This will give them time to put the needed changes in place.

More information about the tax changes and how they might impact your return can be found at the Department of Revenue website (www.revenue.state.mn.us); just click on the orange ‘Tax Law Changes’ button toward the bottom of the page.

The bill also offers increased funding for local schools through local optional revenue. LOR gives school boards the option to authorize new funding for their local districts through a mixture of local and state dollars.

For schools in our area, this program could be very beneficial. The total impact for the schools in our legislative district would be a net increase in funding of $340,386. That would come through an increase of over $640,000 in state aid, and a decrease in the local levies of almost $300,000.

In short, if all the school boards in our area decide to implement the full amount allotted under LOR, overall funding would go up while tax levies would go down.

As you can see, the benefits of this tax relief bill will be far reaching. But what I’m most proud of is that this bill was passed and signed into law less than a month into our legislative session. The House is moving quickly to address our key priorities and finish on time.

Next on our list will be several provisions to specifically help communities like ours in Greater Minnesota by increasing funding for job creation, property tax relief, and the expansion of broadband internet access. I’m confident that each of these provisions will pass through the House this session.

 

Shannon Savick, DFL-Wells, is the state representative for House District 27A.