They struggle to pay bills with no help from Gov. Mark Dayton.
Gov. Mark Dayton’s veto on a tax-cut bill is making life harder for Minnesota farmers.
These farmers are struggling with the farmland property taxes that go toward paying for new schools, according to the Crookston Times.
“We’re looking for a way [for it to be] more equitable to fund education, whether it’s more people in the district or the state taking a bigger share of it,” said Minnesota Farm Bureau President Kevin Paap. “Especially with school bond referendums—rural property owners are paying significantly more, 10 times more, than people living in the city.”
But Gov. Dayton shut down the tax bill that had a provision that “would have reduced the levy tax bill for farmers by giving them a tax credit from the state,” the Crookston Times reports.
“The property tax relief provision for farmers who struggle to pay the high assessment from these school levies for bonded debt would have gone a long way toward helping farmers deal with this,” says NFIB/MN State Director Mike Hickey.
“The provision would’ve provided them a 40 percent credit on the current property taxes they are paying that are attributable to school bonded debt levies. This tax bill, that had very strong bipartisan support, never should have been vetoed in the first place, and Governor Dayton has really disappointed farmers on this issue.”
And the property taxes aren’t the only thing hurting farmers. Due to falling crop prices over the last few years, farmers have been struggling to turn a profit, the West Central Tribune reports. As for other struggling industries, mining and logging continue to experience job loss, with about three-quarters of ironworkers in northern Minnesota being affected, according to Darrell Godbout of the Iron Workers Local 512 union.
