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Dear Friends and Neighbors,
We are now over half way through the 2021 Legislative Session that will wrap up in late May. This week the House Majority released their budget targets and we once again tried to move forward on broadly bipartisan bills but were met with resistance from the majority.
It looks like we may hit 70 on Monday and it should be pretty nice this weekend, enjoy it! Although we won't be in session next week, I am available to answer any questions on legislation moving through the house that you may have.
Have a great weekend!
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Local News
- Congrats to the Lake City Tigers Girls Basketball for making their first trip to state since 1984!
- MnDOT will host an online meeting scheduled for March 31 at 6:00 PM on the upcoming project for resurfacing Highway 61 from Wabasha to Minnesota City.
- Congrats to Fiesta Foods of Lake City for being recognized by the Minnesota Grocers Association and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture as a Minnesota Grown Retailer of the Year for 2021!
- Congrats to Al Hartneck who was presented with the 2020 Outstanding Winger Award this week. Because the 2020 Winger Open was cancelled last year they were unable to recognize Al's accomplishments until now. Congrats Al!
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Push for Bipartisan Solutions
Over the last two weeks, we have pushed for the House Majority to join us in addressing some of the urgent and incredibly important issues for so many Minnesotans— from the fixing the PPP & Unemployment Income tax issues to providing funding for summer school to help students catch up from a full year of distance learning. A brief reminder of each of these important issues:
Exempting forgiven Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan income from state taxes. Currently, Minnesota is the only state in the upper Midwest that has yet to exempt forgiven PPP loan payments. Without action, businesses could owe hundreds of thousands of dollars or more in state income taxes simply for using the PPP funds as intended by the federal government. The Senate passed a PPP tax relief bill earlier in the month with a veto-proof majority on a 55-12 vote.
We need to provide a quick fix to make sure these loans are exempted from state taxes too. Waiting to take action until the end of session is causing great uncertainty at a time when businesses are finally starting to get back to some semblance of normal.
Conforming Unemployment Insurance taxable income to Federal Limits: this proposal targets those who lost their jobs last year and now have big tax bills because of the extra Unemployment Insurance (UI) relief money they received. It would exclude the first $10,200 of unemployment pay from income tax in the year 2020 and assures that the $600 and $300 federal relief unemployment bonuses will not be taxed by Minnesota, just as it is not taxed at the Federal level and make no other changes to Minnesota unemployment law.
Funding for schools to offer in-person summer school programming. I supported a bill that would utilize the expected funds coming in from the federal government to help defray the cost of in-person summer school learning to help students catch up from a year of distance learning, along with funding for student mental health, as well as early learning scholarships. We all have seen that, despite the best efforts of everyone involved, distance learning has taken a toll on students. We need to help our students get caught up.
On Thursday, instead of fixing the Paycheck Protection Program tax issue or any of the other pressing needs discussed above, multiple bills were brought to the House Floor to place additional mandates on businesses across Minnesota. I spoke on the House Floor about how this is wrong.
Now is not the time to be adding to the burden of our business owners, after the year they have been through, the least we can do is not kick them when they are down.
I hope we can come back from the Easter/Passover recess and pass the overwhelmingly bipartisan proposals to conform PPP & Unemployment Insurance to the federal tax code and give our businesses and workers who were displaced during the pandemic some much-needed relief.
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House Majority Budget
This week, the House Majority unveiled the spending portion of its budget plan for the new two-year cycle. At $52.5 billion, it comes with a higher price tag than what either Governor Walz or the Senate Republicans proposed and would be the largest budget in state history.
In principle, I do not favor raising taxes on Minnesotans at a time the state has a $1.6 billion surplus, billions more in reserve, and $8 billion more coming to the state from the federal government. Tax increases are unnecessary, and it is time to let people get to work on rebuilding their own finances after the setbacks incurred over the last year.
The House Tax Committee chair also confirmed their plans to only release one tax bill this session, which means important fixes for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans and Unemployment Insurance (UI) relief will be tied up in end-of-session budget negotiations.
This extremely unfortunate and not what Minnesotans deserve or expect.
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Vaccine Information Links
Today, Governor Walz and Minnesota Health Officials announced all Minnesotans 16 and older will be eligible to get vaccinated for COVID-19 starting March 30.
With the constant state of new information, it is best to check the following links regularly for updates:
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STAYING IN TOUCH
As always, if you have questions or concerns regarding any issue, please contact me. You can reach me at rep.barb.haley@house.mn or 651-296-8635.
Sincerely,
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/RepBarbHaley
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239 State Office Bldg.
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St. Paul, MN 55155
651-296-8635
rep.barb.haley@house.mn |
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