In most campaign years, promising to raise taxes is a campaign killer. This year, for DFL gubernatorial candidate Mark Dayton, it's a mantra.
The former U.S. Senator, who will vie in an August primary against House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher and Matt Entenza, released two new television ads Monday putting his push for higher taxes front and center.
"We're going to make the rich pay their fair share of taxes," Dayton says in one ad.
In another, the announcer says, "Mark Dayton will close the tax loopholes for the rich."
His tax proposals have included income tax hikes on individuals making over $130,000 and couples making over $150,000, as well as large increases for millionaires. The largest "loophole" he mentioned closing in a recent Star Tribune piece, has been that for so called "Snowbirds," who "live outside Minnesota for six months and one day of the year, and pay no personal income taxes in this state."
In the ads, Dayton promises to use the new tax revenue invest in schools and higher education and lower taxes for those who aren't rich. He'll also need nearly all the tax revenue, which he's said would be about $4 billion, to close an estimated $6 billion budget gap the state may have to fill come next year.
The two new ads are Dayton's second and third. He released his first ad, a one-minute bio ad, earlier this month.
Entenza, who, like Dayton, has personal wealth to spend, has release four television ads.
