Senate DFL floats idea of tax add-on

02/14/2006

Proceeds would go to conservation, arts

BY PATRICK SWEENEY
Pioneer Press

Democrats in the Minnesota Senate on Monday announced plans for a constitutional amendment that would increase the sales tax by one-fourth of 1 percent and dedicate the proceeds to conservation projects, as well as to zoos, arts programs and public broadcasting.

The Democratic-Farmer-Labor plan was the latest chapter in a seven-year legislative battle over efforts by hunters and anglers to win a guaranteed and growing source of state revenue. Gov. Tim Pawlenty is scheduled to host a wild-game lunch today with about 30 hunting, fishing and conservation advocates, including four legislators, to try to reach consensus on a funding plan.

Since former state Sen. Bob Lessard of International Falls first proposed the constitutional amendment in 1999, lawmakers have fought over two issues:

• Should the money go only to fish and wildlife programs, or should it be spread around to meet other needs and win votes from urban legislators to put the measure on the ballot?

• Should the money come out of the existing 6.5 percent sales tax or be an add-on to it?

The Senate plan calls for voters to get the chance in November to either accept or reject a tax increase estimated to yield $191 million a year. DFLers who proposed the tax increase stressed that it would amount to only 25 cents on each $100 purchase of taxable goods.

Sen. Dallas Sams, DFL-Staples, the sponsor of the Senate plan, said Democrats proposed their amendment as a tax increase to end a debate about what programs would be cut to allow more money for outdoors programs.

But Pawlenty, who made a 2002 campaign promise to oppose and veto all tax increases, and most House Republican supporters of a sales-tax dedication have consistently favored taking the money from existing tax revenue.

Rep. Tom Hackbarth of Cedar, the sponsor of 2005 sales-tax-dedication legislation that is still pending in the House, called the Democratic proposal “more of the same old baloney.” He accused the Democrats of playing politics by announcing their plan in advance of Pawlenty’s meeting today.

“We will not do a bill in the House of Representatives if it’s a tax increase,” Hackbarth said. He also said he and many House Republicans want no part of a plan that would put arts programs and zoos into the funding mix with hunting and fishing projects.

The Senate DFL proposal calls for 34 percent of the proceeds from the tax increase, or $65 million a year, to be spent on game and fish programs. In addition, $42 million a year would go to each of three sets of priorities: parks, trails and zoos; water pollution cleanup efforts; and arts programs and public broadcasting.

Hackbarth’s current proposal calls for $95 million a year from the current sales tax to be set aside for game and fish programs and another $95 million a year to be dedicated to water projects. He said he planned to amend the proposal to drop the water cleanup money.

Lance Ness of Golden Valley, the leader of two outdoors groups backing a sales-tax amendment, on Monday called the Senate DFL plan a “good start.” He said his groups — the Fish and Wildlife Legislative Alliance and the Rally for Ducks, Wetlands and Clean Water — do not care whether the amendment goes on the ballot as an add-on tax or as a dedication of a sliver of the existing tax.