Letter misstates payroll tax impact in Family Medical Leave debate

In the recent letter to the editor on Sept. 11 titled “Carlie voted for extreme taxes,” the contributor incorrectly wrote that the payroll tax deduction on all Minnesotans for the Family Medical Leave Act would be 25%. This is incorrect. The proposed payroll tax increase is, in fact, 0.88% on combined employees and businesses (with employees only seeing a deduction as high as 0.44%), which is just under 18% higher than the proposed percentage of 0.7%

This information was also covered by Minnesota Reformer, although they say it’s 25% higher rather than 18%, which is also a rounding error. See the article link here.

I think it’s important that our readers and community members be careful not to spread misinformation when it comes to influencing others on how they cast their vote. If it were true that Minnesotans would see a 25% increase on payroll taxes, it would be a much bigger big deal. Perhaps in the future, the previous contributor could check his facts before reacting.

James Monte, Eden Prairie