Minnesota Lawyer
Rep. Greg Davids, R-Preston, chair of the House Taxes Committee, was unconvinced by State Fair survey results that showed about 56 percent support for quadrupling the quarter-cent Twin Cities area sales tax to pay for regional transit projects. “The people of Minnesota are already overtaxed,” Davids said. In this photo, a Green Line train passes through the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.(File photo)
To some citizens, attendance at the Minnesota State Fair is close enough to a civic duty, and the annual taking pride in the state’s ability to deep-fry things is not far from paying one’s taxes. But some in this, the state that nearly always leads the country in voter turnout, go one step further, voluntarily offering their services as citizens with opinions.
Because the results are not random, with volunteers making up the entirety of the respondents, scientists might scoff at poll results derived from the Minnesota State Fair. But legislators don’t. Past years have found fair-goer support for ideas like a raised minimum wage and legalizing medicinal marijuana, putting respondents slightly ahead of their legislators in taking sides on hot-button issues.
The 2015 results centered largely on what was proposed but knocked down in the prior session, including money for transportation — or transit costs for the Twin Cities area, which received special attention — and the potential to cut income taxes using the state’s vast and growing budget surplus.
None of these are new ideas at the Capitol, and partisan leaders seized on numbers that favored positions they held this past spring, or in years past.
Rep. Greg Davids, R-Preston, chair of the House Taxes Committee, was particularly interested in the news that about 68 percent of respondents to the House poll want the state to stop taxing Social Security payments as income, observing that Minnesota is one of the a few states to tax those payouts.
“We want — I want people who are retiring not only to stay in Minnesota, but to move to Minnesota,” Davids said.
His Senate counterpart, Sen. Rod Skoe, DFL-Clearbrook, was less moved on the idea of repealing the Social Security tax.
“Interesting State Fair poll,” Skoe said, pausing before adding nothing aside from some recent context. “It wasn’t in the Senate tax bill last year. Parts of it were in the House bill … and we’re in the middle of conversations about that.”
Davids said he preferred not to speak on behalf of the Senate, but still thinks Gov. Mark Dayton is the bigger obstacle to striking the Social Security excise. In Davids’ understanding, Dayton will not even negotiate a tax cut bill without legislative backing for universal pre-kindergarten, which he fought for during the 2015 budgeting session.
That idea received significant but not overwhelming support in the House’s poll at the fair, with just under 60 percent of respondents voting “yes” on a question about “publicly funded preschool.”
The ranking House Republican was less convinced, and was even more outspoken about State Fair results that showed about 56 percent support for quadrupling the quarter-cent Twin Cities area sales tax to pay for regional transit projects.
“Well, 56 percent is one number,” Davids said. “But 100 percent is another number, and I can say that 100 percent of the House Republican caucus is opposed to that idea. The people of Minnesota are already overtaxed.”
The transit tax responses meant a bit more to Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, chair of the Senate Transportation and Public Safety Committee, though he commented on the voluntary poll’s lack of scientific rigor. Regardless, Dibble said public opinion has consistently tracked in favor of more state investment in the roads-and-bridges expenses the GOP likes, as well as bus and train spending the DFL supports.
“The policy rationale has always been really solid to make the investment in transit,” Dibble said. “In terms of opinion, the public has always been pretty far ahead of the Legislature.”
Dibble said he planned to keep pressing for a compromise transportation finance bill, despite Republican opposition, and referenced a proposal entered during the one-day special session in June. That legislation would combine a slight uptick in the wholesale gas tax for road infrastructure, and would let individual counties pass their own transit tax increase, capped at three-quarters of a cent — or triple the current rate.
The Senate bill was introduced as a placeholder during the interim between sessions, and had no Republican co-authors in the House or Senate. But the Senate signatures Dibble collected are noteworthy in themselves: DFL Sens. Kent Eken (Twin Valley), Melisa Franzen (Edina) and Vicki Jensen (Owatonna) all represent closely won swing districts, and would be among the most vulnerable Democrats to campaign literature attacking a “gas tax” vote.
The DFL legislative lead on transportation was a lot less interested in a State Fair poll finding from the Senate’s questions; asked what the state should do with a budget surplus, spending the bottom line on “infrastructure needs such as transportation” received more than 26 percent of the vote. Leaving the leftovers in budget reserves ranked second, with about 18 percent, while permanent tax cuts (11.4 percent) or a one-time rebate (9.8 percent) combined for about 21 percent.
Dibble said the idea of using general fund dollars, either as cash or bonding, for transportation needs should not be ruled out in 2016, but argued that it would not be prudent for future years.
“As soon as there’s any economic or budget downturn, the priority is absolutely and correctly going to be education, health care, and public safety,” Dibble said. “That’s not just a theoretical statement, I think we’ve seen that happen in the past.”
Taxes and transportation seem perpetual and inevitable topics, but another question on the House survey was brand new, and its novelty stumped both Dibble and Rep. Tony Cornish, R-Vernon Center, chair of the House Public Safety and Crime Prevention Finance and Policy Committee.
Some 70 percent of respondents said the state should “offer financial assistance” to local police forces for the purchase of body cameras, which will soon be in use in all of the state’s major cities. So far, cities have been left to their own devices, quite literally, while state lawmakers have concerned themselves with universal policy for the collection, housing and availability of what’s captured on police film.
The respective public safety leaders said that discussion — left unfinished in 2015, to be resumed next year — should still be paramount, but each would be open to talks about state grants or incentives to expand body cameras to new areas.
“The bigger question,” said Cornish, “is going to be answered after we get through the whole thing of establishing the law, which is about all the other variables. Are we going to pay for everything? The cameras are some of the least expensive parts of it. It’s a huge cost for maintaining the database, the storage … and then, the continuing upkeep, buying new equipment and the man-hours it takes to review them.”
More than 6,300 attendees completed the House of Representatives poll, and 4,600 filled-out the Senate’s questionnaire. Demographic queries on the Senate side found a virtually even split among men and women, and tilted toward suburban populations, which made up 46 percent of the survey pool, trailed by Twin Cities (26 percent of the total) and rural residents, who contributed just 13 percent of the responses.
