Minnesota
DFL lawmakers to big corporations: Show us your tax returns • Minnesota Reformer
Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor legislators this week introduced a bill that aims to force corporations to disclose more about their finances and tax bills in the face of increasingly opaque tax avoidance strategies by the nation’s biggest companies.
Rep. Emma Greenman, DFL-Minneapolis, proposed a bill on Monday that would make a corporation’s state tax returns available on a state website. The proposed disclosure law would apply to corporations that make $250 million or more in aggregate gross national sales and receipts, meaning it would apply to the biggest corporations that do business in Minnesota, like Amazon and Target.
“Disclosure and transparency is just good across the board when it comes to the biggest actors in our economy,” Greenman said. “It’s really important that we, as lawmakers, are showing the public that we’re willing to be fair and transparent about the biggest economic actors.”
A Pew Research study last year found that 60% of Americans said the feeling that corporations don’t pay their fair share “bothers them a lot.”
Unsurprisingly, the state’s business lobby and trade organization are against the proposed bill (HF4513).
Kurt Zellers, CEO of the Minnesota Business Partnership — which lobbies for the state’s biggest companies like 3M and Cargill — questioned the legislators’ intent , saying it would make corporations’ tax information available to competitors “or worse, nefarious dictator-led countries.”
“Why would any lawmaker want to punish homegrown Minnesota businesses and put them at a competitive disadvantage? There’s a reason no other state in the nation has passed a law like this,” Zellers said in a written statement to the Reformer. “Our lawmakers should never jeopardize our companies and their employees.”
The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce questioned the legality of the bill.
“This bill violates the long-standing principles of taxpayer confidentiality, likely runs afoul of federal law that prohibits states from releasing tax return information and undermines Minnesota’s competitiveness as other states do not require similar public disclosure of confidential tax return information,” said Beth Kadoun, vice president of fiscal and tax policy with the Minnesota Chamber, in a statement.
Greenman said corporations for years have claimed the state’s policies are driving businesses out of state, but it doesn’t happen. She cited the latest February forecast as evidence that corporations are making big bucks in Minnesota, as the state’s budget agency said corporate profits and taxes are higher than expected.
“This is a piece of information, just disclosure,” Greenman said. “It puts no more burdens on these corporations, and I think it’ll be useful for policy-making, to the public and for creating a fairer economy.”
Democratic lawmakers are also again eyeing a new tax regime that would require corporations to report their worldwide revenue, instead of just U.S. income.
Rep. Mike Howard, DFL-Richfield, introduced a bill (HF4535) this week that would study the impacts of Minnesota implementing what’s called worldwide combined reporting, a proposal that DFL lawmakers dropped during the eleventh hour of last year’s session after corporations successfully lobbied lawmakers and Gov. Tim Walz to kill it.
Worldwide combined reporting requires multinational corporations to pay income taxes based on their entire global profits rather than what they make in the U.S. Multinational corporations often shift their profits to subsidiaries outside of the U.S. to avoid taxes.
Howard said he’s proposing the study because when lawmakers proposed worldwide combined reporting last year, there were too many unknowns, like how the Department of Revenue would enforce it and how much revenue it would generate for the state.
“What this bill is about is making sure our tax system is fair and making sure that corporate entities are paying their fair share,” Howard said. “Fundamentally, the idea is something a lot of Minnesotans support in terms of just the basic fairness, so let’s get the details right.”
Howard said this year lawmakers intend to study it. Depending on what the study finds, they could implement it at a later date.
Both the Greenman and Howard bills will be heard in the House Taxes Committee on Wednesday.
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – Temperatures dropped into the negative Saturday, with the coldest temperatures in the morning.
How cold it got in Minnesota Saturday
By the numbers:
Here is how cold the temperatures got in Minnesota:
- Hinckley: -20 degrees
- Bemidji: -20 degrees
- Ely: -18 degrees
- Brainerd: -18 degrees
- Detroit Lakes: -18 degrees
- Hibbing: -17 degrees
- International Falls: -17 degrees
- Duluth: -16 degrees
- Alexandria: -12 degrees
- St. Cloud: -12 degrees
- Cambridge: -11 degrees
- Grand Marais: -10 degrees
- Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport: -6 degrees
- Red Wing: -6 degrees
- Morris: -6 degrees
- Hutchinson: -5 degrees
- Rochester: -5 degrees
- Mankato: -3 degrees
- Windom: 0 degrees
- Marshall: 0 degrees
Here are the lowest wind chills across Minnesota from Saturday:
- Bemidji: -37 degrees
- Ely: -35 degrees
- Duluth: -34 degrees
- Brainerd: -32 degrees
- Detroit Lakes: -32 degrees
- Hibbing: -31 degrees
- Alexandria: -29 degrees
- Hinckley: -27 degrees
- Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport: -24 degrees
- St. Cloud: -24 degrees
- Willmar: -22 degrees
- Cambridge-21 degrees
- Grand Marais: -21 degrees
- Hutchinson: -21 deegres
- Morris: -20 degrees
- Faribault: -18 degrees
- Mankato: -18 degrees
- Marshall: -17 degrees
- Red Wing: -16 degrees
- Owatonna: -16 degrees
- Windom-12 degrees
Cold continues Sunday
What’s next:
The Twin Cities are under a cold weather advisory that is expected to last through Sunday morning, so residents should prepare for frigid conditions if they have plans to be outdoors.
Sunday will be slightly less frigid with temperatures climbing above zero. However, it will still feel like 10 below zero in the afternoon.
Milder and warmer temperatures are expected to return for the work week.
Minnesota
Minnesota Wild acquires NHL star Quinn Hughes from Vancouver Canucks in a blockbuster trade
The Minnesota Wild made an all-in move for one of the NHL’s best players in his prime, acquiring defenseman Quinn Hughes from the Vancouver Canucks in a blockbuster trade — their boldest action yet toward ending a decade-long skid of playoff series defeats.
The teams announced the seismic move on Friday night, after the 2024 Norris Trophy winner as the league’s top defenseman had been the most talked-about trade candidate over the past couple of weeks. Minnesota sent center Marco Rossi, defenseman Zeev Buium, winger Liam Ohgren and a first-round pick in the 2026 draft to suddenly rebuilding Vancouver to complete the deal.
The trade was the second major swap of the day, after two-time Stanley Cup Final runner-up Edmonton finally made a move for a goaltender, acquiring Tristan Jarry from Pittsburgh.
Rossi (24), Ohgren (21) and Buium (20) fit the mold of the young talent the Canucks were speculated to be targeting if they were going to trade Hughes. Rossi (2020), Ohgren (2022) and Buium (2024) were all recent first-round draft picks by the Wild.
“Quinn played hard, led by example and did a lot of very good things for the Canucks,” Vancouver general manager Patrik Allvin said. “Trading away a player of this caliber is never an easy decision to make, but it was one we had to do to make our team better. We are so excited to add a solid centre in Marco, a good young blueliner in Zeev and a versatile forward in Liam. This year’s draft is a strong one, so acquiring a first-round pick was also a big part of this deal.”
Hughes had no trade-blocking protection in his current deal that pays him an average of $7.85 million annually. Hughes, who is 26 and widely considered the best at player on the blue line behind only Colorado’s Cale Makar, is signed through the 2026-27 season before he can become an unrestricted free agent.
The Wild will not be allowed to extend Hughes until July 1, and it’s unclear if he would consider signing a new contract with them. There has been plenty of buzz around the league that Quinn wants to play with his brothers, Jack and Luke, with the New Jersey Devils.
They could potentially be teammates on the U.S. Olympic team, either in February in Milan or in 2030. Wild general manager Bill Guerin runs USA Hockey’s management team.
The long-term outlook for Hughes can wait until next summer, though. The Wild are focused on challenging the two top teams ahead of them in the loaded Central Division, rivals that happen to also have the top two records in the NHL: Colorado and Dallas.
The season-long celebration of the franchise’s 25th anniversary would be a lot more meaningful if the Wild can finally advance in the playoffs, having lost nine straight series after a first-round victory over St. Louis in 2015. The Wild have passed the second round just once in their entire existence, when they were swept in the Western Conference finals by Anaheim in 2003.
Hughes is a significant upgrade to Minnesota’s blue line, anchored by captain and 16-year veteran Jared Spurgeon, smooth-skating 14-year veteran Jonas Brodin and young stalwart Brock Faber. The emergence of rookie goalie Jesper Wallstedt this season has given the Wild a reliable tandem with Filip Gustavsson in the net, with star winger Kirill Kaprizov leading the attack after recently signing the richest contract in hockey history to stay in the “State of Hockey” through 2034.
After a rough start, the Wild are 14-3-2 since Nov. 1. They host Ottawa on Saturday and Boston on Sunday night, with the latter game likely the more realistic one for Hughes to debut.
Hughes had two goals, 21 assists and 32 blocked shots in 23 games this season with the last-in-the-NHL Canucks. When he won the Norris Trophy two seasons ago, Hughes had 17 goals and 75 assists, both single-season franchise records for defensemen and the most among all blue liners in the league. Drafted seventh overall in 2018 out of Michigan, the native of Orlando, Florida, spent time growing up in the Boston and Toronto areas while his father, a hockey coach, moved around.
This was Hughes’ third season as Vancouver’s captain, and his abrupt exit paves the way for more change 11 months since the trade of J.T. Miller to the New York Rangers and in the aftermath of coach Rick Tocchet’s departure.
“With the circumstances surrounding J.T. and now Quinn, we are fortunate to acquire these very good young players from Minnesota,” Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford said. “They will be a key part of the rebuild that we are currently in, giving us a bright future moving forward. The hockey club will continue to build with talented young players using that as a blueprint to become a contender sooner rather than later.”
KSTP/SurveyUSA poll results: Fraud in Minnesota
The first results of KSTP’s exclusive SurveyUSA poll on fraud in Minnesota have been released.
Our survey asked: Do you think fraud in state programs is the biggest problem in Minnesota?
From a group of 578 registered voters, 79% say it’s either the biggest problem or a major problem.
Another question asked was: Has Gov. Tim Walz done enough to stop fraud in Minnesota?
Fourteen percent say that he’s done enough, while 69% say he needs to do more.
The survey also asked if the Legislature has done enough — 11% say yes, and 74% say they need to do more.
Click here for KSTP’s full coverage on fraud.
You can view the results of the fraud-related KSTP/SurveyUSA results below:
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