Diane Zachor counts the days until August, when she gets her renters' credit check.
"It's the one month out of the year that I don't have to worry about taking from one necessity to pay for another," she said.
Zachor works full-time as an office manager for the Minnesota Citizens Federation, earning $15,000 a year. More than half of her paycheck goes toward paying her $750-a-month rent. That hit is lessened by the state renters' credit -- a refund sent to eligible low- to moderate-income renters to offset the amount of property taxes they pay through rent.
Gov. Tim Pawlenty has said he will cut the renters' credit by about a quarter to balance the state budget on July 1, which will result in renters losing anywhere from $100 to $300 beginning next year.
Pawlenty spokesperson Alex Carey said the move also will make the refund fairer. The program was initially created to balance out the property tax refund that renters' landlords and property owners get. But, Carey said, the state is giving back more money to renters than they are to the property owners.
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"Even with this long-overdue recalibration of the renters' refund, Minnesota will still have the most generous renters' refund in the country," Carey said.
Liberal legislators and community activist groups use the cut in renters' credit as an example that the governor's unallotments will hit the poor the hardest.
"What's so unfair is that the governor had a clear choice: He could tax the very wealthy people, or he could take something away from very low-income people," said Angie Miller, executive director of Community Action Duluth, a low-income advocacy and support agency. "It just seems so unnecessary."
While $100 to $300 beginning next year may not seem like a large amount of money, Zachor said she used the money in the past to buy groceries or medication she had foregone for several months because she couldn't afford it. This year she was going to use the money to replace a window broken when her car was burglarized. Now, even though her loss will come next year, she said she will delay fixing her car.
"I have to watch every penny I spend," she said. "It's a lot of money when you're going from one paycheck to the next and trying to figure out how to make ends meet."
In 2006, more than 11,000 residents used the renters' credit in St. Louis County, with nearly 41 percent of those being seniors or people with disabilities. The governor's cut could hit residents even harder in Duluth, where people spend a higher proportion of their incomes on rent than in other cities. In Rochester, for example, nearly 3,000 people spent almost half their incomes on rent, according to the nonprofit Minnesota Housing Partnership. In Duluth, that number was about 7,500.
Pawlenty critics also note that renters will be hit another way: When the governor cuts local government aid, municipalities are likely to respond by raising property taxes. Landlords and property owners are likely to pass those increases on to renters.
"I think it's devastating," said St. Louis County Commissioner Steve O'Neil, "and very unjust."
