Anderson-Kelliher Property Tax Promise

“In a bid to nail down the senior voters who could be vital to a primary victory, DFL gubernatorial candidate Margaret Anderson Kelliher on Monday offered up a seniors-only property tax break.” (Read the whole article)

In response to David Sadler's July 29 letter: It is important to note that we, along with our colleagues in both political parties, worked hard to reduce Minnesotans' property taxes. We are proud of our bipartisan success. (Read the whole letter)

It must be election time if candidate Margaret Anderson Kelliher is talking about property taxes. When Kelliher was the assistant to minority leader Matt Entenza, she was very interested in Minnesota’s property tax problem. However, when she became the speaker of the House she did not have time to listen to the Minnesota Senior Federation Tax Committee’s proposal to limit property taxes to a percentage of one’s income. Every Minnesota tax has a limit except the property tax. Legislation was drafted to place a 5% of income limit to property taxation.

Margaret Anderson Kelliher on Monday promised a seniors-only property tax break in her bid for the governorship. This is a disingenuous pander to senior citizen voters, as she has repeatedly blocked such legislative efforts in her position as House Speaker.

For the past four years, the Minnesota Seniors Federation (MnSF) Tax Committee has lobbied for a property tax limit based on household income. And not just for seniors, but for all homeowners (HF1548/SF1339). The committee has several times requested meetings with House Speaker Anderson Kelliher, as well as Ann Lenczewski (House Tax Chair), and Paul Marquart (Property Tax Chair). All three have been against any kind of proposal to limit property taxes for anyone - including seniors. In fact, Anderson Kelliher and Lenczewski refused to simply meet with the representatives of our tax committee. The Property Tax committee under Paul Marquart has had our HF1548 property tax proposal, which was positively reviewed by the Minnesota Department of Revenue, for two years. They have refused to hold a single hearing on it. This clearly demonstrates that the House Property Tax Committee and the House Leadership do not support any kind of property tax legislation. It is opposed to it. And Ms. Anderson Kelliher knows that the current legislature will not pass property tax reform. Responding to our surveys, Minnesota legislators have overwhelmingly stated to us that they are against senior citizen favoritism. Ms. Anderson Kelliher’s promise for senior citizen property tax relief is disingenuous.

One more important point for anyone interested in property tax reform is to look at the work done by the Minnesota Department of Revenue, which measures property tax burdens across the state. They’ve collected income and property tax data (The Voss Database) and published reports showing the property tax burden over the last few years has DOUBLED. And that low income homeowners are paying much more in property taxes, once again demonstrating how much this tax is regressive. In Minneapolis, the income first decile (lowest income 10%) of homeowners pay on average over 9% of their income for property taxes while the average Minnesota income tax payers pay about 5.5%, and the top bracket pays 7.5% of income. Even with the proposed income tax increases, lower income homeowners will be paying more taxes that the rich.

According to our surveys many low income homeowners, especially in the older cities, pay 30%, 40%, 50% and even more of their income for property taxes. And if that is not enough to show the problem, many homeowners report they pay far more in property taxes than they do in health insurance. The Voss database and the reports from it are understood by the legislators and especially understood by the property tax committee, and the House leadership. They have done nothing on this issue because of heavy intense lobbying from nearly every County, City and Town across the state. If a limit is put on property taxes in any way, it will cut off their only source of revenue. This in turn shows what a mess we have for a tax system and no politician, party, or leader has been willing to take on this one and get it fixed, least of all Anderson Kelliher and for that matter none of the other candidates either. It will be up to the voters to put their foot down and reject this kind of political nonsense and pandering. (This letter in the StarTribune July 29, 2010)

Vote for sure, but not for her!

State and local governments throughout Minnesota are facing the worst financial crunch since the 1930s. So what are the two big-party endorsees for governor talking about? Tax breaks, of course.

The recent tax pronouncements of Republican Tom Emmer and DFLer Margaret Anderson Kelliher might sound appealing if you happen to be, respectively, a military pensioner or a senior-citizen homeowner.

If you're not, you ought not be too sanguine about what these candidates are pitching. In the context of the current financial crisis, new tax breaks for any select group necessarily mean higher taxes and/or deeper cuts in services for everyone else. Minnesotans may be willing to pay that price if the tax break in question delivers a gain in which the entire state can share. The question for these two candidates ought to be whether the gain their narrow tax breaks promise is great enough to justify their price.

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