Minnesota is moving up the rankings, but not in a good way: Its business property taxes are increasingly becoming some of the highest in the country. The Minnesota Taxpayers Association and the Cambridge, Mass.-based Lincoln Institute of Land Policy produce an annual 50-state property tax comparison study. Look at the study for the 2010 tax year and then compare with 2011. Minnesota rose in the rankings when it came to the taxes that a commercial property owner paid in a typical urban area or a typical rural area. When it comes to the amount of property taxes paid for industrial properties, Minnesota still benefits from not taxing personal property such as machinery and equipment. But even when it came to taxes on industrial properties, Minnesota was up among the states. The Republican-led state Legislature earlier this year passed a bill providing property tax relief for businesses. But the state’s DFL Gov. Mark Daytonvetoed it, saying lawmakers had not come up with a way to pay for it in future years.
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