By Marlow Hamerston
MnSF property tax/income security committee

Senior Federation leadership and staff met with Gov. Tim Pawlenty March 21 on a number of issues and concerns to seniors, for which the top item on the agenda was property taxes.

MnSF state director, Lee Graczyk, and MnSF intern, Heather Moore, attended the meeting along with Marlow Hamerston, Jerry Irsfeld and Bob Klemenhagen. The governor had his chief of staff, David Gaither, and Beth Kadoun, his advisor on tax issues.

For the first portion of the meeting Federation representatives discussed HF2469, which places a limit to the percentage of a person's income that can be taken by the property tax. Any amount over a given percentage - to be determined by the legislature - would be refunded to the homestead property taxpayer. Several percentages, ranging from 4 to 6 percent, were offered as possible limits. Cost of imposing these limits range from $112 million to $62 million. Considering that monies that might be available are only $88 million, there is some work to be done. There is the possibility of restricting participation to those of age 65 and over, which reduces the cost to approximately $11 million.

Pawlenty is concerned about rising property taxes in Minnesota. He suggested an alternative to our approach, which is very interesting. He said he shall direct the Department of Revenue to investigate the cost and feasibility of his idea. The governor promised to let MnSF know the results of the DOR assessment and suggested we meet again as soon as the results are delivered to him. Details of the governor's suggestion shall be given in next month's Senior News.