Taxes committee adds resort property tax changes to early tax bill, advances measure to Senate floor

The Minnesota Senate Taxes Committee on March 13 adopted an amendment to add the language of Senate File 2,076 — a bill that raises the classification tiers for Class 1C homestead resort properties — to an early omnibus tax bill, Senate File 132, and voted to send the amended SF132 to the Senate floor.

The amendment, offered by Senator Hauschild and adopted by voice vote, inserts the SF2076 tier adjustments into the A2 amendment to SF132; the committee then adopted the A2 amendment as amended and passed SF132 as amended to the floor. Earlier in the hearing SF2076 had been presented and initially laid over for further consideration.

Proponents told the committee the tier changes aim to preserve small, family-run lakeshore resorts by aligning the tax treatment with how those properties operate and by offsetting sharp increases in assessed values. "This bill increases the 3 classification tiers applied to Class 1C Homestead Resort properties, also called Mom and Pop Resorts," Senator Hauschild said when presenting the proposal.

The bill would change the tier breakpoints used to calculate the Class 1C homestead resort tax: the first tier would increase from $600,000 to $1,500,000 of taxable market value; the second tier would cover the next $3,000,000 (previously up to $2,300,000), and a third tier would apply to value above $4,500,000. The per-tier tax rates would…