The 2014 Minnesota legislative session opened today and both republicans and democrats are saying all the right things when it comes to providing Minnesotans with tax relief.

For farmers, tax relief needs to include repealing provisions passed last session that imposed new taxes on farm machinery repairs and equipment, as well new taxes on warehouse storage for agriculture inputs like fertilizer. The machinery tax has already been implemented. The warehouse storage tax goes into effect on April 1.

Here are 5 reasons why both new taxes need to be repealed:

• Minnesota is home to more than 81,000 farms. The agriculture and food sector is our state’s largest employer with two-thirds of all ag-related jobs located off the farm. When the recession hit, the agriculture sector was one of the few bright spots in our economy and was especially important to helping rural communities persevere through the downturn. Both of these new taxes negatively impact job creation in the ag sector, especially in rural areas.
• Projections show the state of Minnesota with a budget surplus of close to $1 billion. Farmers understand the challenges faced by the legislature in trying to balance the budget and ensure that essential services and programs receive the funding they need. However, with a surplus on the horizon, there should be enough resources to repeal both of these taxes and meet other funding needs.
• Farmers sell their products in national and international markets, which includes many states that don’t have machinery repair or warehouse taxes. Unlike non-farm businesses, farmers can’t pass the costs of these additional taxes onto consumers.
• Fixing and maintaining farm equipment is expensive. Worn chains or poorly maintained seed meters can end up costing a lot in the long run. If just one corn seed out of 12 doesn’t emerge, it could mean a loss of $12,000 on 500 acres. The machinery repair tax disproportionately impacts beginning farmers who can’t afford new equipment and instead rely on maintaining older equipment.
•  Both tax provisions were passed in the closing hours of the last legislative session. Now that we’ve had time to properly break down exactly what these taxes mean and see firsthand the negative impacts they have on Minnesota’s farmers and rural communities, it’s time to get rid of them.

Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton previously declared this session an “unsession,” an opportunity for legislators to get rid of unnecessary regulations, bureaucratic hurdles and misguided provisions such as the new taxes and farm machinery repair and warehouse storage.

Make sure you contact your state representative and senator to encourage them to get rid of both taxes as early as possible and get this “unsession” off to a positive start.