When Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller (DFL-Minneapolis) appeared before the press on Monday to react to Gov. Tim Pawlenty's supplemental budget, one key point of emphasis was his vow to reduce the size of Pawlenty's proposed $250 million cut in aid to local units of government. On Thursday, Sen. Tom Bakk (DFL-Cook), whose Taxes Committee will be taking up the matter of local government aid, told PIM he's aiming for a package that limits those cuts to roughly $100 million.
According to the deadlines set by legislative leaders, the House/Senate conference committee on taxes has until gavel-down on Thursday to reconcile a pair of very different omnibus tax bills. And if what has transpired there so far is any indication, it’s going to be a rough ride to the finish line.
In dollars-and-cents terms, there’s a [...]
Moments ago, the Senate Taxes Committee passed an amendment from Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller (DFL-Minneapolis) to modify the temporary income tax increases in the chamber’s omnibus tax bill.
The original omnibus proposal by chair Tom Bakk (DFL-Cook) [PIM item] would have imposed across-the-board income tax increases that sunset in 2014. Pogemiller’s amendment changes the sunset provision [...]
In wrapping up the 10-minute press conference that followed the introduction of the Senate’s omnibus tax bill yesterday, taxes chair and 2010 gubernatorial candidate Tom Bakk (DFL-Cook) (pictured) was asked why he had chosen to make an income tax rollback to 1998 levels the centerpiece of his plan. His response is worth noting in its [...]
After hours of testimony today, the Senate Taxes Committee passed an amended version of its omnibus bill on a 9-4 party-line vote.
The bill, sponsored by Senate Taxes Chairman Tom Bakk (DFL-Cook), passed with the $2.2 billion income tax increase that was first unveiled on Tuesday morning. But the committee moved some money around in the [...]
Live from room 15 of the Capitol:
The Senate Taxes Committee omnibus bill has just been passed around the room. It’s keynoted by a wholesale reworking of the state’s income tax rates that’s supposed to start in 2009 and blink off in tax year 2014.
The current 5.35 percent bracket goes to 6 percent; the current 7.05 [...]
As we predicted in last Friday’s edition of the PIM Weekly Report, Sen. Tom Bakk’s (DFL-Cook) (pictured) omnibus tax bill seeks to raise its entire revenue target–$2.2 billion–by essentially reinstating the tax rates that existed in the state in 1998, before the first of a pair of extensive income tax cuts during the Jesse Ventura [...]
