House Taxes Committee recommends constitutional amendment to return budget surpluses to taxpayers

At a Minnesota House Taxes Committee hearing, members voted to recommend House File 4, a proposed constitutional amendment that would create a tax relief account to return certain projected budget surpluses to taxpayers, sending the bill to the House Ways and Means Committee.

The bill’s author, Representative Johnson, said the proposal would ensure that when projected revenues exceed 105% of projected expenditures as determined by the November forecast, surplus money would be placed into a tax relief account for refund to the people who paid it. "If passed by the voters, the amendment would establish a tax relief account that would be funded using money from a projected surplus," Johnson said. The committee first adopted the H0004A1 amendment to put the bill "in…