Letter to the Editor: Property Tax Increases a Betrayal of Rural Minnesota

A strong farm economy and vibrant communities are the key to the success of rural Minnesota. And the lifeblood for our rural communities is local government aid (LGA), state monies that enable cities to provide high quality “essential” services while keeping property taxes affordable. LGA allows rural cities to have the same level of services as much wealthier metro cities at roughly the same cost.

Senior citizens, families and businesses benefit greatly in rural Minnesota from LGA and direct property tax relief for homeowners. In 2013-14, under Gov. Mark Dayton and a DFL-led Legislature, we increased LGA by $88 million and provided more than $100 million in direct property tax relief to homeowners, renters, and farmers. As a result, property taxes went down for the first time in 12 years. During this time, homeowners saw their property taxes go down $41 million and businesses had a cut of $55 million. All of this property tax relief came to a screeching halt when LGA was frozen in 2015.

If you haven’t received it yet, your annual Truth in Taxation statement will be arriving in your mailbox any day now and the news is not good - your property taxes are going up. The Department of Revenue states that preliminary property tax levies around the state will go up a crushing $422 million in 2016. These increases could have been avoided. Property taxes in the city of Baudette will go up as much as 10% and by 7% across Beltrami County. They are going up because of the actions of your local legislator, Rep. Dave Hancock. Rep. Hancock provided absolutely no property tax relief to area homeowners – not a single dime for LGA – despite a $2 billion surplus. There’s no doubt Rep. Hancock and his colleagues will soon be scrambling to shift blame for these increases to anyone but themselves.

In fact, unbelievably, the Republican led House of Representatives cut LGA by $84 million, a cut that jeopardizes a program that goes two-thirds to rural Minnesota residents and businesses. Even worse, House Republicans prioritized permanent tax cuts for the owners of Minnesota’s largest business property owners, while providing $0 in direct property tax relief to Minnesota homeowners or renters. The owners of skyscrapers in Minneapolis would have received property tax cuts, while homeowners in greater Minnesota would have received nothing.

Keeping property taxes in check through LGA and property tax relief is what keeps and attracts homeowners, businesses and farmers to rural Minnesota. These property tax increases are a betrayal of Greater Minnesota and the opposite of the campaign promises the Republicans made to rural Minnesota.

Those crushing increases are why it’s imperative that rural legislators, from both sides of the aisle, take a leadership role on behalf of rural property tax payers. That means strengthening LGA and providing direct property tax relief. The Republican majority in the House must drop its plan to cut and dismantle LGA and follow the lead of the Senate, which is proposing to increase LGA funding by $45.5 million to get back to 2002 levels.

Too much is at stake for rural Minnesota for us to do otherwise.

Sincerely,

Rep. Paul Marquart

Rep. Marquart (DFL-Dilworth) is the House Deputy Minority Leader and former Chair of the Property Tax Division.