In the 1990s, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and other energy activists in Minnesota undertook an effort to get Minnesota to adopt a billion dollar “tax shift” that would have raised the cost of energy while reducing taxes on income and/or property. ILSR was integrally involved in the design of the legislative proposal and examined the impacts on various sectors of Minnesota’s economy. Below you will find the archive of the materials that were prepared to support the initiative. Over several years, the proposal was debated extensively but never enacted into law.
Resources
The Economic Efficiency and Pollution Prevention Act of 1998 – introduced in the Minnesota Legislature
One of several hearings on this $1.3 billion tax shift proposal was held in the House Environment Committee on February 5, 1998, where an amended version of EEPRA was debated. The bill was withdrawn without a vote. There is NOT an electronic version of the amended EEPRA available, but there is a link to the House Research Summary of the amended version of EEPRA Bill.
- Improving the Efficiency of Minnesota’s Industries – David Morris and Ann Robertson, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, November 1997
- The Minnesota Ecological Tax Shift: Impact Analysis on Individual Businesses – David Morris, Alyson Schiller, and John Bailey, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, February 1997
- The Effect of the Minnesota Ecological Tax Shift on Low Income Households – John Bailey and David Morris, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, March 1997
- The Economic Efficiency and Pollution Prevention Act of 1996-Testimony
On February 15, 1996, ILSR’s Vice President David Morris testified before the Minnesota Legislature’s House Committee on Taxes in support of the ecological tax reform bill. - Ecological Tax Reform Factsheets (1996)
- Economic Efficiency and Pollution Reduction Act (EEPRA) of 1996: Questions and Answers
- Factsheet 1: The Arithmetic of Pollution Taxes
- Factsheet 2: Minnesota Taxes
- Factsheet 3: The Billion Dollar Cost of Pollution in Minnesota
- Factsheet 4: The Impact of Pollution Taxes on Industry
- Factsheet 5: Pollution Taxes and the Poor
- Factsheet 6: Ecological Tax Reform in Minnesota-Answering the Critics
- Restructuring Minnesota’s Tax System: Taxing Pollution Rather Than Work and Investment
In February 1995, ILSR’s Vice President David Morris testified at the Minnesota Legislature on how Green Taxes could be used as a substitute for other forms of tax revenues.
Related Archived Resources
- Carbon Caps With Universal Dividends: Equitable, and Politically Effective Climate Policy -by John Bailey and David Morris, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, January 2008
- Replacing Utility Property Taxes In Minnesota With Revenues from a Carbon-Based Tax – David Morris and John Bailey, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, November 1998
- Taxes, Agriculture, and Climate Change – David Morris and John Bailey, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, November 1998
- Green Taxes – by David Morris, 1994
The report was originally presented at the Environmental Taxes Workshop, sponsored by ME3, ILSR, and Friends of the Earth on July 6, 1994. This report looked at the the status of Eco-taxes in the United States and Europe.
