Proposal would provide eligible landowners $50 per acre, each year, for farmland converted to water quality buffers

ST. PAUL, MN – Governor Mark Dayton today thanked Republican legislators for supporting a tax credit to help alleviate the cost of compliance with state water quality requirements. The tax credit would provide eligible landowners $50 per acre, each year, for farmland converted to water quality buffers. Governor Dayton first proposed a version of this tax credit as part of his 2017 Tax Bill.

“I thank Representative Paul Anderson and Senator Bill Weber for authoring this sensible, bipartisan proposal to support Minnesota farmers, who are working to protect clean water throughout our state,” said Governor Dayton. “I strongly support this legislation, and encourage Republican Legislative Leaders to send it to me, as a clean bill, as soon as possible.”
 
The proposed tax credit would allow Minnesota landowners who have installed water quality buffers on tillable land to receive the tax credit, even if they installed the buffers before the new water quality law went into effect.

This bipartisan legislation is being authored in the Minnesota House of Representatives (HF 4395) by Representatives Paul Anderson, Bob Gunther, Jeff Backer, Chris Swedzinski, Joe Schomacker, and Paul Marquart, and in the Minnesota Senate (SF 3960) by Senators Bill Weber and Gary Dahms.