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Tax reform needs restructuring

To the editor:
The letters I have read in the Post Review and elsewhere indicate that taxpayers are getting sticker shock from the sudden increased value in their homes. Those of you who were surprised by the sudden jump need to start paying more attention to local and state government.
Governor Tim Pawlenty has repeatedly stated he will not raise taxes. However, the drastic cuts made to LGA resulted in budget deficits in cities across Minnesota. While conventional wisdom says that government aid always goes somewhere else, these funds were used to pay for public services like police, fire departments, snow plowing, and sanitation. Rather than lose services completely or degrade them to the point of uselessness, cities and counties raised taxes to pay for them. As a result of the poor decisions made in St. Paul, property taxes went up, services went down, and North Branch area residents are still wondering when their bridge will come.
Some good did come out of the funding fiasco. The needs-versus-wants discussion is very valuable, since it helps to define our expectations for government. Efforts to share services and address unfunded mandates are good - waste is money and unfunded mandates can really be a burden.ÝHowever, I donít think we can save our way out of this mess and it doesnít look like the economy is going to recover quickly enough to fill the stateís coffers with money any time soon.
I think our legislature needs to revisit the property tax reform legislation that was passed two years ago. The original intent of the bill - to introduce fairness into the system and to address the issue of the impact of rising property taxes on fixed-income property owners - was lost. Most of the benefits of that bill went to the owners of properties worth $250,000 or more.
The state has not realized a benefit from this poorly conceived bill and the tax burden of the middle-income home owner has gone up, not down. The Legislature needs to restructure property tax reform so that the burden of taxation is spread more equally across all property owners in all areas of the state.
Amy Ries
North Branch

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