Committee lays over a slate of local sales-tax exemption and school-construction refund bills for omnibus consideration

The Minnesota Senate Taxes Committee on Feb. 13 laid over a series of local sales-tax exemption bills and school-construction refund requests to be considered in the omnibus tax bill. The package includes Senate File 61 (Plymouth city center infrastructure) and a sequence of school-district requests (Senate Files 48, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 159 and 160) that seek refunds or exemptions for construction materials on specified local projects.

Senator Westland introduced Senate File 61 on behalf of the city of Plymouth. Maria Solano, deputy city manager for Plymouth, told the committee the city asked for exemptions to lower construction costs on regionally significant projects and to "reduce the property tax impact on Plymouth's residents for regionally beneficial high demand infrastructure improvements." The bill lists specific projects in Plymouth’s city-center revitalization plan and, according to the sponsor, would shorten the time frame from prior proposals and provide refunds of sales tax collected on eligible work.

Senator Weber presented a series of school-district requests that were largely procedural updates or…