Rep. Brad Tabke, DFL-Shakopee, speaks on the House floor on April 4, 2024. Photo by Andrew VonBank/House Session Daily.
A DFL lawmaker running for re-election in a competitive district is working to pay off tens of thousands in back taxes after the state of Minnesota put liens on his property in the 2010s, according to documents obtained by the Reformer.
In 2012, the state put a lien on the property of Rep. Brad Tabke, DFL-Shakopee, for $30,521 in unpaid sales and use taxes dating to 2010. Additional liens for $7,509 and $3,405 were placed in 2014 and 2017, respectively.
Tabke says the liens stem from financial troubles that began during the Great Recession of 2008-2009 when a large client failed to pay his landscaping firm.
“We fell behind financially,” Tabke said via email. “We settled for pennies on the dollar to get employees paid and sold off the assets of the company to pay back as much as we could.”
Tabke added he is on a payment plan with the state, and that he has “diligently stuck to that plan.” He said he has no other taxes in arrears. Like all Minnesota lawmakers, his legislative salary is $51,750 per year.
Tabke’s financial woes weren’t limited to state taxes. Court records also show a 2013 judgment against Tabke and his wife for more than $20,000 owed to Wells Fargo; an April 2016 judgment for $9,215 owed to a student loan company; a May 2021 judgment for nearly $2,000 owed to debt collection agency LVNV Funding; and a March 2023 judgment for more than $18,000 owed to American Express Bank.
Those latter two judgments were issued after Tabke became a state legislator. In 2019, Southwest News Media reported on a separate set of financial problems involving Tabke’s home mortgage as well as additional business debts.
“I used to have a significant amount of shame around this, but have come to recognize thousands of Minnesotans are in the same position trying to get back to being debt-free,” Tabke said. “It very much informs the work I do and decisions I make at the Capitol on behalf of working Minnesotans who are struggling to get by and afford their lives.”
Tabke represents District 54A, a southwest Metro district that encompasses Shakopee — where Tabke was previously the mayor — and could play a key role in determining which party controls the House. Tabke won his last race by more than eight percentage points over right-wing troll Erik Mortenson, but this year Republicans are running a more credible candidate — police officer Aaron Paul — in hopes of taking the seat back.
In 2020, Tabke’s campaign was issued a civil fine for accepting a $500 donation from an organization — the Minnesota Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association — that wasn’t registered with the state Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board.
Last year, Tabke spearheaded $4 million in new funding for the popular Lawns to Legumes program, which provides grants to homeowners who convert traditional grass lawns to more pollinator-friendly landscaping using native plants. Tabke, who has a degree in horticulture from Iowa State University, also runs a private landscaping consulting firm that could benefit from any increased demand for native plant services spurred by the Lawns to Legumes funding.
Tabke pointed out that the program provides funding to individuals, not businesses like his, and that he is “very careful that none of my professional work overlaps with the program.”