Gov. Dayton disputes Republican’s claims on homestead credit
WILLMAR — When Rep. Greg Davids was in Willmar Tuesday night to explain the new tax bill to local government officials, he said the elimination of the market value homestead credit was proposed by Gov. Mark Dayton during special session negotiations in July.By: Carolyn Lange, Associated Press
- Explaining the process
- Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton
WILLMAR — When Rep. Greg Davids was in Willmar Tuesday night to explain the new tax bill to local government officials, he said the elimination of the market value homestead credit was proposed by Gov. Mark Dayton during special session negotiations in July.
Davids, a Republican from Preston, is chairman of the House Tax Committee, and reiterated that statement in a telephone interview Thursday morning.
Davids said eliminating the homestead credit was in the governor’s “first offer” during the negotiation process and that there was “quite a bit of debate” about the proposal.
“It kind of caught me off guard,” Davids said Thursday, of Dayton’s offer to end a tax credit that reduces property taxes on homesteads.
It apparently caught the governor off guard too.
Katharine Tinucci, Dayton’s press secretary, called the Tribune to say that Dayton did not propose eliminating the homestead credits and that the proposal came from Republican lawmakers. She said the governor reluctantly agreed to proposal the as part of a compromise to end the state shutdown.
In a letter Dayton wrote to Davids, the governor said the claims that he proposed ending homestead credits is “completely and absolutely untrue.”
Dayton said eliminating homestead credits was included in the GOP’s first budget that he vetoed and that it was “proposed and pushed” by Republican leaders during the final negotiations.
“My own budget proposals made no cuts to Local Government Aid and neither reduced nor eliminated the Market Value Homestead Credit,” Dayton said. He added that he did not agree with the cuts then “nor do I now.”
Davids, meanwhile, said given the state’s $5 billion budget shortfall “something had to happen” to balance the budget and account for added spending Dayton wanted.
Davids said ending the homestead credits was the “right thing to do” because it ends a state tax reimbursement program that did not work and consistently short-changed local governments.
Although homestead credits have been eliminated, property values will be decreased under a new homestead “exclusion” tax provision. Tax rates, however, will increase which is expected to increase property taxes across the state.
In Kandiyohi, the change in the law is expected to result in a 6 percent increase in property taxes.
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