Democrats in the Minnesota House have brought their tax bill to the floor. Across the entirety of their budget bills, Democrats are raising taxes by more than $12 billion over the next four years.

$12 billion in additional taxes over the next four years? On top of a $1 billion surplus (projected revenue over previously approved expenditures)?

The DFL legislators in the House are asking us to believe that the state government needs to take in 14% more than it required to operate over the last four years.

Even Governor Walz's own administration confirmed that low and middle-income Minnesotans will be hit hardest by Democrats' massive tax increases.

Starting this week, the ten major spending bills and policy plans will be taken up by conference committees that are tasked with resolving differences between the House and the Senate. (We've highlighted in a separate article an especially controversial policy that's included in the Omnibus Education Bill.) As Minnesota taxpayers, you should contact your representatives to make clear that you do not support these excessive tax increases. To see the names and addresses for SD49’s MN legislators, CLICK HERE

Spending in the last four years of the Dayton administration had already increased by 14%. During the period from 2014 to 2018, inflation has increased under 2% annually, while Minnesota’s economy has grown an average of 2% annually. Yet state spending has grown at better than 3.4%. And Gov. Walz wants to increase that growth rate to better than 4%.

Minnesotans believe in prioritizing our needs and spending within our means. It just doesn’t make sense that the Minnesota state budget needs to go from $39.8 billion in FY14-15 to $49.4 billion, as requested by Gov. Walz in his proposed FY20-21 budget. That is a 24% increase.

The House transportation bill raises the gas tax by 20 cents—a 70% increase. It will raise more than $4 billion in taxes and fees once fully-phased in. Minnesota’s current 28.5 cent/gallon tax is right in the middle of gas taxes across the U.S. Increased by 20 cents/gallon, we will have the fourth highest rate. Get ready to pay over $3 for a gallon of gas.

The House bill also institutes a metro-wide sales tax to fund light rail transit to the tune of $986 million.

On a party-line vote, the House approved a DFL-sponsored Omnibus Health and Human Services Finance bill that raises health care costs, cuts nursing homes, and allows rampant fraud in our public programs to continue. They rejected common-sense Republican amendments to exempt cancer treatments, pregnancy care, and diabetes treatment from next year's tax increases, amendments to restore the $68 million their bill cuts from Minnesota nursing facilities, and amendments to prevent and prosecute fraud in our public programs.

So, the DFL budget will raise the price of gasoline and consumer goods, increase the cost of health care, adds new taxes on Minnesotans' paychecks, and it includes hundreds of millions in fees on everything from electricity to just about every canoe and boat Minnesotans use on our lakes. Have they missed anything?

Ironically, while cutting nursing homes and denying funding for Deputy Registrars hit by the MNLARS disaster, the budget will fund a pay raise for legislators.

For Democrats, the answer is always the same: taking more money from hardworking Minnesotans.