ST. PAUL — Both Democrats and Republicans in the Minnesota House are pushing legislation to address soaring property taxes, but they’re struggling to find a solution that can gain the necessary bipartisan support to pass.
Property taxes in Minnesota have risen steeply over the past few years. According to the Minnesota Department of Revenue, tax levies for all local governments have increased approximately 6.8% since 2025, totaling nearly $13.8 billion.
“We've heard a lot about record high property taxes,” said Rep. Liz Lee, DFL-St. Paul. “Whether it's been in committee this year or in your communities.”
A bill by Lee would expand the state’s property tax refund for families who claim the homestead credit. It would find the money to do it by targeting corporations and individual income tax filings of more than $500,000.
The bill would create a new unit to audit corporations, and the money recovered would pay for the property tax refunds.
“We know Minnesota families work hard,” Lee said. “This bill seeks to reward that with an increased property tax refund paid for by increased scrutiny on billion-dollar corporations.”
The bill ultimately failed to make it out of the House Taxes Committee on Wednesday, April 29, after five Republican committee members left the meeting during a roll call vote on the issue. A later motion to reconsider the vote after the GOP members returned also failed.
“It was bizarre seeing so many of my GOP colleagues walk out on a vote that would make life more affordable for their constituents,” said Co-Chair Rep. Aisha Gomez, DFL-Minneapolis, in a statement released shortly after the meeting.
While the two parties struggle to agree on specific relief bills, they’ve rallied behind the idea of creating a property tax task force.
Two distinct bills — one authored by Taxes Committee Co-Chair Rep. Greg Davids, R-Preston, and the other by Rep. Matt Norris, DFL-Blaine — would assemble a group to report on property taxes across the state.
Where they differ is in their intent: Davids’ bill focuses on identifying the causes of tax increases and improving local budget transparency, while Norris’ bill, which has bipartisan co-authors, focuses on finding ways to lower property taxes and provide relief based on changing home values and tax rates.
Another attempt at lowering property taxes came from Rep. Athena Hollins, DFL-St. Paul. Her bill would raise income taxes for Minnesotans with a taxable income of more than $1 million for married couples and $600,000 for individuals.
The money generated from the increase would go toward local government aid, or LGA, and county program aid, or CPA, helping to lower residents’ property taxes.
Speaking in favor of the bill, St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her said inflation is driving up costs for basic services but doesn’t cause an equal increase in local government aid. The bill would help compensate for that, she said.
Rep. Mike Weiner, R-Long Prairie, said taxes are rising because the government is spending too much money.
“We are over-taxing our citizens in the state,” Weiner said. “If we want to fix our problems with LGA and CPA, I want to suggest that we heavily go after the fraud and minimize our spending in this government before we look at taxing our citizens more.”
As the session nears an end, committees in the House and Senate are still working on tax bills, with no guarantee property tax relief will be included.
Report for Minnesota is a project of the University of Minnesota’s Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication to support local news across the state.
