Dog Bites Man Story

Minnesota increases taxes.  An editorial in the PioneerPress is reporting:

It's been nearly four months since Minnesota legislators adjourned from their regular session in May, and reporters still are uncovering the impact of lawmakers work on "below-the-radar" taxes.

As new taxes continue to pile on, filing returns in Minnesota will be both more costly and complex after one-party control that left the state with $2.1 billion in tax increases to fuel new spending.

A report last week by the Pioneer Press' Bill Salisbury made note of more examples, including this one: If your employer pays tuition for you to take college courses, the federal government won't tax that benefit, but the state will.

Many of the state's new taxes got little exposure in the flurry of last-minute, end-of-session deal-making. The loss of tax breaks slipped through with little notice because most attention was focused on the DFL's income tax increases on the wealthiest Minnesotans and new business-to-business sales taxes, Salisbury reported. 

"Any time you make significant changes to the tax code, you're going to see ripple effects that go beyond the first wave of discussion," Mark Haveman, executive director of the Minnesota Center for Fiscal Excellence, told us.

Oh, so much fun.