The 2020 Minnesota Legislature begins in three weeks and the top Republican in the House says, use part of the 1.3-billion-dollar surplus to repeal the medical provider tax — the “sick tax.” House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt says, “They raise taxes on Minnesotans’ health care — every Minnesotan’s health care — by about 1.8 billion dollars per biennium. I’d like to get rid of that.”
Governor Tim Walz fought hard in 2019 to keep the provider tax and said in December that a repeal is “not happening”:
“Really?… Understanding that all of the economists and what all of the Greater Minnesota health care providers… said, and the catastrophic impact that [provider tax repeal] would have both on the families and the delivery [of health care services]? No.”
Senate Republican Leader Paul Gazelka says he doubts whether either the medical provider tax — or Democrats’ proposed gas tax increase — will be revisited this year.