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Hello from the State Capitol,
As your state representative, I have long been supportive of our charities, both legislatively and financially. However, there has been a development at the Capitol that could be beneficial to charities while, in my opinion, detrimental to the state.
As a way to drum up support for his bill that allows sports gambling in Minnesota, the bill author announced that a provision would also be included that would lower tax rates for charities. In other words, this tax relief for charities will be held hostage unless lawmakers allow sports gaming to become law.
This is a horrible way to move forward. I want our charitable organizations to know that if a tax relief bill for them arrived on the House floor as stand-alone legislation, I would support it immediately. But if it continues to be a part of the sports gambling proposal, I will not be able to vote for it as I do not support the continued expansion of gambling in Minnesota.
It is very disappointing to me that we have taken the needs of charities and tied them to the future of sports gambling in Minnesota, yet that is the direction the House majority appears to be headed.
Talk to you soon,
Greg
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