Our real estate lobbying organization received overwhelming response to last week’s “Call for Action” on the House Tax Bill that proposed eliminating the deduction for property tax and mortage interest. If you were among those that called or emailed our legislators, we thank you! A strong message was sent. These actions are the wrong things to do, and certainly at the wrong time.
Unfortunately, the bill did pass, by a narrow margin. The vote was 68 DFL votes for and 65 DFL & Republican votes against the bill. In the debate, legislators from both sides brought up issues related to Minnesota's heritage, taxes, spending, jobs, local property taxes and the need to fill the state’s budget shortfall. You can view the entire debate and track the final vote on the Minnesota House Legislative web site, http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us.
Moving forward, the two legislative bodies will enter into a Conference Committee. This is the group that will draft the final legislative proposal to Governor Pawlenty. The two bills will be examined, and the most popular proposals will be adopted. Changing the deduction for Mortgage Interest and Property Taxes is one of the most controversial issues on the bill.
Our Minnesota Association of REALTORS lobbyists will be attending and testifying at the conference committee meetings to make sure the final bill language does not contain the MID/Property tax elimination language. However, if the bill language hurts homeowners, we’ll be asking West Savage Blog readers to take action again.
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