Not A lot of Positives for Small Business in 2015 Session
St. Paul (May 21, 2015) – There were not a lot
positive accomplishments for small business in the 2015 session, although
several positive measures passed the House and a dramatic gas tax increase was
defeated according to the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB),
the state’s major small business group.
“The biggest disappointment was the fact that there was no
tax bill and we missed a terrific opportunity to finally conform our state
estate tax exemption to the federal. If
we can’t achieve this with a $2 billion dollar surplus, we never will,” said NFIB
Minnesota State Director, Mike Hickey.
Due to an anticipated large surplus again next year, hope
lingers for the estate tax issue and also for reducing the state general tax on
business property. NFIB gave a big kudos to House Speaker Kurt Daudt (Crown)
and House tax chair Greg Davids (Preston) for their leadership and support of a
major tax bill that had several significant provisions in it for small
business.
“The House tax bill would’ve significantly improved the
business climate in our state and would have finally resolved the estate tax
conformity issue” said Hickey.
One of the few positive accomplishments of the session was the
passage of the Workers’ Compensation Reform bill that will finally begin to
address the significant problem Minnesota has with escalating health care costs
within the Workers’ compensation system.
Currently, health care costs account for 65% of total costs
and it is a serious and growing problem.
The bill that passed this session extends the Medicare ERG system to
providers for the reimbursement of inpatient health care costs in the system. The legislation also gives the commissioner
of Labor and Industry the authority to impose the same reimbursement system on
outpatient costs, the vast majority of health care costs to the system, if the
parties don’t reach an agreement on a cost cutting measure between now and Jan.
1st of 2017.
“This new rule making authority is absolutely critical and
we’re glad it is in the bill,” said Hickey.
Another positive occurred for small businesses that are
impacted by the Pollution Control Agency when a bipartisan agreement abolished
the agency’s controversial citizen’s board which has made many decisions that
were burdensome to small business.
Unfortunately, several positive initiatives contained in the
House jobs bill were not enacted that would have been helpful for small
businesses. Hickey noted an expected
agreement on an unemployment insurance tax credit that would’ve benefited all
employers somehow was not included in the final jobs bill due to problems
reaching an agreement on the total bill in the final hours.
Small business did have a big victory on the defensive when
the very controversial Senate gas tax proposal was dropped by majority party
Senators. The proposal not only raised
the per gallon gas tax but attempted to impose the state sales tax to gasoline
at the wholesale level and potentially would’ve given Minnesota one of the
highest gas taxes in the country when the cost of gas inevitably increased! It was estimated that initially it would’ve caused
a 16 cent per gallon gas tax increase, which would’ve given Minnesota the 5th
highest gas tax and that was sure to go up when the price of gas increased.
