Minnesota needs a fair and balanced budget 

This is the last full week of the regular 2015 Legislative Session. While Gov. Mark Dayton and DFL legislators are working to build a better Minnesota for all Minnesotans with the state’s $2 billion budget surplus, House GOP want $4 billion in permanent tax giveaways for corporations and special interests, to kick 90,000 working families off health care, to cut job creation programs, and shortchange our children’s futures.

Bonding – $842 million gap

Gov. Dayton has proposed a Jobs Bill that would make critical investments across the state in infrastructure projects statewide, creating more than 23,900 Minnesota jobs. The Jobs Bill would fund a critical drinking water system in southwestern Minnesota, make port improvements statewide, upgrade college classrooms and laboratories, make needed safety improvements for highway rail separations, and replace two old veterinary laboratories with new labs to help Minnesota meet new disease challenges (including avian influenza). For a complete list of the projects the Jobs Bill would fund, click here.  

By contrast, the House GOP proposal provides: 

• No new investment in critical infrastructure statewide
• No funding for veterinary labs to help fight diseases like avian flu
• No new funding for the Lewis & Clark Water Project
• No new security improvements at correctional and prison facilities
• No new improvements to MnSCU and U of M campuses statewide
• No new investments in essential flood mitigation projects
• No new investments in critical railway safety infrastructure statewide 

2015 GOP tax giveaways · bonding gap · Gov. Dayton · Mark Dayton

Minnesota needs a fair and balanced budget 

This is the last full week of the regular 2015 Legislative Session. While Gov. Mark Dayton and DFL legislators are working to build a better Minnesota for all Minnesotans with the state’s $2 billion budget surplus, House GOP want $4 billion in permanent tax giveaways for corporations and special interests, to kick 90,000 working families off health care, to cut job creation programs, and shortchange our children’s futures.

Taxes – $1.7 billion gap

Gov. Dayton’s budget proposal would expand the Working Family Tax Credit to more than 287,000 middle class families, expand the K-12 Education Tax Credits to 16,800 more middle class families, and expand the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit to 130,000 Minnesota families. Altogether, under the Governor’s proposal over 350,000 Minnesota families would see a reduction in their taxes. 

By contrast, the House GOP proposal would: 

• Cut taxes by $1.9 billion this biennium
• Give over $4 billion in permanent tax giveaways to corporations and special interests, when fully phased-in
• Protect and maintain corporate tax loopholes
• Deny 257,000 middle class families additional tax relief
• Give permanent tax giveaways to the wealthy by cutting the Estate Tax for the wealthy
• Give property tax giveaways to railroads hauling crude oil and other flammable loads while protect them from paying new assessments that would help pay for essential railway safety improvements statewide
• Cut tens of millions of dollars from Local Government Aid specifically for Duluth, St. Paul, and Minneapolis 

2015 GOP tax giveaways · Gov. Dayton · Mar Dayton