Minnesota is one of the most expensive states in the country to call home. In income taxes, state and local taxes per capita, sales taxes, and business taxes, we rank near the worst almost across the board. Taxpayers here send more of their paycheck to the government than almost anywhere else in the country.
This has been true for a long time, but in 2023 and 2024 Democrats used their total control of government to make things far worse. Minnesota had a record-breaking $18 billion surplus because the state over-collected from taxpayers. Instead of giving it back to the people who earned it, Democrats spent every penny of that surplus. They spent it on their pet projects, they spent it on handouts for nonprofit allies, and numerous other left-wing causes. They spent so much that our state budget increased 40%.
But it still wasn’t enough, because they also raised taxes and fees by more than $10 billion, including deeply unpopular license tab fee increases.
You would think that after all of that, Democrats might pause on the tax proposals. But you would be wrong.
This session, Democrats have another lengthy list of new ways to make your lives more expensive. There is a proposal to add a brand new state-level property tax on homestead residential property, in addition to your local property taxes. There is a proposal to expand the state sales tax to cover advertising services. This bill alone is a tax increase of more than $800 million. Democrats are also pushing a 10-cent-per-bottle excise tax on plastic beverage containers. Additional proposals would create a new income tax bracket, raise the corporate income tax rate, impose a tax on social media, and create a new sales tax for housing.
Governor Walz has added a number of tax increases to his own supplemental budget proposal, including expanding the sales tax to cover more goods and services, imposing a social media tax, and creating a new tax on firearms.
There is one tax proposal I do support. I am a co-sponsor of SF 5032, which creates a 100% tax on money obtained through fraud against state programs. If you committed fraud against Minnesota taxpayers, you will pay every cent back. The bill covers anyone convicted of fraud, anyone the Revenue Commissioner determines committed fraud, and anyone who received payment for helping someone commit fraud. The proceeds from this tax will be deposited into an account that will be used exclusively for income or property tax relief.
Democrats are focused on ways to raise taxes, while Senate Republicans have been using this session working on ideas to make life more affordable and stop fraud. We have proposed capping property tax increases. We have a bill to undo the Democrats’ tab fee increases. We have a bill to cancel the greenhouse gas emissions rules that are driving up transportation costs. And we are continuing to advocate for giving local governments and schools relief from the onerous unfunded mandates that Democrats added in 2023 and 2024 that have pushed their budgets to the brink.
Minnesotans are telling us the number one issue on their mind is affordability. Tax increases should be off the table, and the priority should be finding ways to provide people with the relief they so desperately need.