Should the Minn. Senate pass the tax-cut bill?

"The Minnesota House overwhelmingly passed a tax bill Thursday that cuts $503 million in taxes for businesses and realigns state tax policy so that it more closely conforms with federal tax law," writes MPR News reporter Tom Scheck.

The 126-2 vote came on the same day Gov. Mark Dayton proposed an even more robust tax cut plan in his supplemental budget. Both the governor and House leaders say the proposal needs to move quickly, but Senate leaders are indicating they want more time.

The vote comes a little over a week into the session and less than a year after Gov. Dayton and the DFL-controlled Legislature passed a budget that raised $2.1 billion in taxes. The most recent state budget forecast projects a $1.2 billion surplus in the current two-year budget cycle.

State Rep. Ann Lenczewski, DFL-Bloomington, said the bill should pass quickly to ensure that taxpayers waiting to file before April 15 will benefit.

"We need to do federal conformity right now because people are filing their taxes right now," Lenczewski said during the House floor debate. "And we need to repeal those business-to-business taxes that the surplus would allow us to do."

While the vote was nearly unanimous in the Minnesota House, some Minnesotans like Brent Strom say a tax-cut is a bad idea. "We should be utilizing that money to reinvigorate the rainy day fund and to cover the extra transportation repairs that will be needed after this winter," he wrote. It's "infrastructure time," added Coleen Tully.

Today's Question: Should the Minn. Senate pass the tax-cut bill?

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