The Legislature convened for a special session recently to provide critical disaster relief funding for the 18 counties impacted by storms in June 2013. The vote was unanimous in the Senate, and nearly unanimous in the House. It was great to see such bipartisan cooperation to pass this important relief for cities and counties who saw widespread damage and power outages in their communities.

Unfortunately for Minnesotans, Democrats neglected the perfect opportunity to clean up the man-made disaster that they’ve inflicted on the hard-working taxpayers of our state.

In May, Democrats passed burdensome new taxes on warehousing services, commercial equipment repair and telecom equipment. These taxes, as acknowledged by the governor’s own administration, will be passed down to consumers, resulting in everyone paying more for everyday goods and services.

At that time, 69 Democrats in the House voted in favor of the $2.1 billion in new taxes, and all 61 Republicans stood united with hard-working taxpayers in opposing these taxes.

It didn’t take long for Democrats to recognize the public’s discontent and acknowledge that they had gone too far. Legislators on both sides indicated support for repealing these taxes.

In June, Republicans called on Gov. Mark Dayton and Democrat leaders to call a special session to repeal the taxes that they acknowledged were hurting Minnesota families and businesses, like Petro Serve USA, an 80-year-old company that announced it was moving its headquarters and jobs from Moorhead to West Fargo, N.D. Other businesses are considering similar moves to take jobs elsewhere, or putting expansion projects on hold.

But Democrats said no, saying Minnesotans had seen enough special sessions. How many jobs are Democrats willing to sacrifice for their stubborn refusal to fix the taxes they’ve admitted were mistakes?

The recent special session was Gov. Dayton and Democrats’ opportunity to make good on their statements and ensure that their actions matched their words. The legislature was back in St. Paul with a chance to act, and Democrats turned their backs on the hardworking taxpayers of this state.

There are no excuses. Democrats have absolute, complete control of state government. Minnesotans can’t afford to wait one more day for Democrats to fix their mistakes.

 

Kurt Daudt

minority leader

Minnesota House

of Representatives

Crown