Reducing or eliminating Minnesota’s estate tax could be back on state lawmakers’ radar screen this year, after Senate Democratic Minority Leader Tom Bakk said in Rochester this week that he supports it to keep older Minnesotans from leaving the state. Senate Republican Majority Leader Paul Gazelka’s response: “If the governor is also open, so that it’s a bipartisan decision that we don’t want to lose these people to other states, then it’s something that I would be open to.” Gazelka adds the only way it would ever happen is, “if we all recognize it as a problem.”
Walz administration officials couldn’t be immediately reached for comment. Those opposed to eliminating the estate tax argue it would mainly benefit wealthy Minnesotans.