By Tim Pugmire, Minnesota Public Radio News

ST. PAUL — The tax debate at the State Capitol this session is expected to include proposals aimed at lowering property taxes.

Democrats in the Minnesota House have already introduced a property tax refund measure among their early, priority bills. If passed, it would allow House DFL leaders to follow through on one of their big campaign promises by proposing some direct property tax relief to middle class homeowners, and renters.

The bill, introduced by state Rep. Jim Davnie, DFL-Minneapolis, would expand the renter’s credit and the existing homeowner property tax refund, which paid out about $272 million to 363,000 Minnesotans in 2011.

“There’s some income thresholds in the existing property tax refund program. We’re tweaking those slightly so that we expand the program and people get a little bit more in property tax relief,” Davnie said of his bill, the one introduced this session. “We’ve seen property taxes going up and up for a lot of Minnesotans, and we want to pull those back.”

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