I recently noticed something interesting. In the fall of 2010, the State of Minnesota voters turned the Minnesota House and Senate over to the "No More Taxes" GOP. In the fall of 2011, the voters of School District 549 voted no more money for the Perham-Dent Schools. In 2011, the Minnesota Legislature "overhauled" the Market Value Homestead Credit program and came up with a new Homestead Market Exclusion (it was passed).
I received my Proposed Property Tax from Otter Tail County and my property taxes will be MORE in 2012 than if HME had not passed and the money for school District 549 had (if the info sent out by Concerned Citizens for Property Tax - "No More Taxes" - "Property taxes are inherently unfair" is correct).
I would like to thank Rep. Mark Murdock for his letter to the Focus (Oct. 27, 2011). I found it very informative. He said the old program was broken and the state had only fully reimbursed the local government one year. Perhaps that is because of eight years of "No New Taxes" Gov. Pawlenty, who was replaced by the "No New Taxes" Minnesota State GOP controlled Legislature who do not recognize inflation increases as government costs.
Mark Murdock gave two examples as to how HME affected property taxes. The city of Perham has a modest 2 percent increase. So the Perham home and small business owners get to pay 2 percent more while the state pays 2 percent less to keep the local government budgets the same. The city of Anoka will get a 7 percent reduction of its taxes by getting more money from the state.
In 2011, the city of Anoka voted to give a lot of money to their schools.
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The GOP would point out to you that the HME legislation was signed by Gov. Dayton. I believe the reason Gov. Dayton signed the HME program is because it was part of the legislation that got the government up and running again after a 20 day Government Shut Down.
What Gov. Dayton got in return was (I believe) $50 million for construction jobs, re: roads, bridges, etc. What Gov. Dayton didn't get was a modest income tax increase, re: the top bracket 7000 plus who earn the most money in the State of Minnesota.
The "No New Tax" people will also be happy to hear that most of the 7,000-plus will not have a state property tax increase on their home property because they do not live in the State of Minnesota. My Proposed Property Tax Statement said that my property taxes will go up a modest 46.1 percent. How did you do?
