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.
(ABC 6 News) — It’s a big weekend for politics in Minnesota as both the DFL and GOP conventions are getting underway.
The DFL Convention is being held in Rochester, and delegates will endorse candidates for attorney general, secretary of state, and governor on Friday night.
Current Attorney General Keith Ellison received the DFL endorsement for attorney general.
Meanwhile, endorsements for U.S. Senate will be up on Saturday.
On Sunday, delegates will be voting on who they will back for state auditor.
A big shakeup in the convention took place earlier this week with Rep. Angie Craig announcing she will not seek the DFL endorsement as she campaigns for U.S. Senate.
Minnesota Congresswoman Angie Craig no longer seeking DFL endorsement in Senate race
Both Craig and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan are running for the seat on the DFL side.
This U.S. Senate seat is open after current Sen. Tina Smith announced she will not be running for reelection.
Senator Tina Smith will not seek reelection in 2026
As for the gubernatorial race, Sen. Amy Klobuchar is expected to receive the DFL endorsement on Friday night. ABC 6 News is at the convention, and we will have the latest updates throughout the weekend both on air and online.
Beef prices have climbed to record highs this year, and consumers are noticing.
That’s due in part to the U.S. cattle herd being the smallest it’s been in 75 years due to drought and high feed costs. John Lauritsen shows us how that’s impacting smaller beef producers in Minnesota.
“In 2008 we started with three cows. And we didn’t sell our first beef to consumers until 2011,” said Josh Krenz of Windland Flats Farm near Princeton.
But for the past 15 years, Krenz said his Highland Cattle have been in high demand. The long-haired cows are a niche product, and over the past 5 years consumers have been contacting Windland Flats Farm for their steaks and ground beef.
“It’s super lean but really tender and has a lot of marbling to it still,” said Krenz.
The rising popularity of Highland meat has allowed Krenz to expand. The natives of Scotland are hearty animals and good grazers who need shade but not barns, so they’re cost-effective to raise. But lately, Krenz has wondered what the future holds for his herd, as consumers adjust.
“They are not buying in bulk packages that we used to sell. They are buying smaller just trying to go from paycheck to paycheck is what it feels like.”
Instead of buying 35-pound packages for about $450 like they have in the past, lately their clients have been looking to buy just a fraction of that.
“We just see people wanting to go down to 10 pounds or 15 pounds or maybe they aren’t coming back at all,” said Krenz.
And it’s forced Windland Flats and other farms like them to make a number of adjustments when it comes to promoting their product and limiting their overhead costs.”
“That’s what we are doing the most is watching our costs. Some of that is using technology to lower labor costs. Optimizing the land because we aren’t going to be able to afford to buy more land in 5 years if we aren’t going to have that income flow coming in,” said Krenz.
There’s still hope that things will turn around. In the meantime, it’s business as usual for the Highlands.
“Just as an economy as a whole, everybody is watching their wallet really hard right now,” said Krenz.
In Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa, there are about 250 members of the American Highland Cattle Association.
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