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Capitol View®
Tim Pugmire

Senate passes tax bill too

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The Minnesota Senate passed the $1 billion tax bill tonight on a vote of 44 to 20.

Senate Tax Chair Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, said voting to raise taxes is always hard. But he described the latest DFL plan as a much better option than the borrowing proposal in the governor's budget. Bakk also said the revenue would boost schools, hospitals and nursing homes.

"It's not going to hold those programs areas whole in this difficult budget situation," Bakk said. "But I would argue it will mitigate a lot of cuts. And if this bill becomes law, those committees that have jurisdiction over those accounts will be able to put that money in their budgets and the cuts will be much lower than they would be without this money."

Senate Republicans didn't see and redeeming qualities in the tax proposal. And they had no expectation that the bill would become law.

Sen. Geoff Michel, R-Edina, suggested the bill was a waste of time and effort.

"Here we go," Michel said. "We're going to get to watch the governor play catch and release. This is going to be the fastest veto in the history of Minnesota. And why are we even doing this tonight?"