House panel advances constitutional amendment to return surplus to taxpayers; committee approves bill as amended

The Minnesota House Taxes Committee voted to recommend House File 4, a proposed constitutional amendment that would create a tax relief account funded from projected surpluses and direct surplus funds back to taxpayers, and sent the bill as amended to the House Ways and Means Committee.

Representative Rich Johnson, the bill’s author, presented the measure and told the committee the proposed amendment would place language in the Minnesota Constitution requiring return of surplus funds when projected revenues exceed 105% of projected expenditures as determined in the November forecast. “If there’s more than is necessary, we should send it back,” Johnson said.

What the bill would do

As presented to the committee, House File 4 (with the H0004A1 amendment adopted in committee) would create a constitutional mechanism to place surplus funds in a tax relief account and return them to taxpayers rather than allowing unrestricted legislative appropriation of the surplus. Under the proposal, a surplus is defined by the…