Poll shows support for state’s tax hikes

Published 10:15 am Tuesday, June 18, 2013

MINNEAPOLIS — A new poll finds broad support for recently-enacted tax hikes on wealthy Minnesotans and cigarette smokers.

The Star Tribune’s Minnesota Poll shows 58 percent of respondents support the tax increase on upper-income earners included in Gov. Mark Dayton’s budget and backed by the DFL. Thirty-six percent oppose the tax. Even more respondents, 64 percent, favor a $1.60 per pack hike in the cigarette tax. Thirty-two percent oppose it.

House and Senate Republicans say the tax increases that will raise more than $2 billion over the next two years will hurt the state’s fragile economy. Both taxes passed the Legislature in May and have been signed into law by Dayton.

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The phone poll of 800 adult Minnesotans was taken June 11-13. It has an error margin of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.