By Marlowe Hamerston
MnSF property tax/
income security committee

On April 10 the Governor's Office informed the Senior Federation that Gov. Tim Pawlenty has discontinued (for this session) the pursuit of limiting the percentage of income that can be taken by the property tax. Pawlenty was interested in the Federation's proposal, but instead came up with an alternative to wipe the slate clean of all programs that provide money for property tax relief and implement one program that would establish a fixed percentage limit that could be taken by the property tax.

Pawlenty was to request Department of Revenue figures to see if the proposal was viable. Evidently the figures were not, in their opinion, viable (due to budget constraints and to prevent shifting taxes to other properties and among homeowners). The Federation has been promised the data used in this determination.

The MnSF tax committee is disappointed in tracking this turn of events but will continue its efforts with HF2469 and SF2279.