“The State of Minnesota has both a strong interest and legitimate role to play in economic development efforts aimed at increasing the economy’s capacity to create wealth,” said Matt Kane, the policy report’s author. “Policymakers can tap the preferred approaches and guiding principles found in this new report to judge strategies for influencing economic development and growth in Minnesota.”

The Growth & Justice policy report calls on the State of Minnesota to emphasize economic development approaches in the short term that will help sustain businesses and workers during the economic recession, including:

§         Offer businesses advice and technical assistance. With the downturn, assistance will need to move well beyond marketing and planning help and address a broader range of immediate business concerns. 

§         Help laid-off workers. Some laid-off Minnesotans will need retraining. Others will benefit from job search assistance, particularly as the economy begins to recover. 

§         Encourage entrepreneurs. During this recession, state government should encourage and support entrepreneurs – including laid-off workers who start businesses – as they exploit economic change and emerging opportunities.

“The policy report lays out smart approaches to long-term economic development for Minnesota and presents guiding principles for government involving in the state’s economy,” Kane said. “It emphasizes that market forces drive Minnesota’s economy, that the state’s economic development efforts should build upon the strengths of the state’s economy and yield real impacts, and that economic development policies should result in broad benefits for Minnesota businesses and Minnesotans rather than narrow benefits for a select few.”

Smart Economic Development for Minnesota builds on its smart approaches, its guiding principles and the driving factors for economic growth to assess several economic development strategies. Among the report’s findings:

§         A new sports stadium for the Twin Cities fails the test for smart economic development.

§         The state’s Job Opportunity Building Zones (JOBZ) program, which offers state and local tax breaks to selected businesses that locate or expand in 10 designated zones throughout Greater Minnesota, falls short of the mark for smart approaches. 

§         The state should invest in education and skills training to better the lives of Minnesotans and improve the skills and knowledge that they bring to their jobs. 

§         Public sector investment in transportation, done well, is a smart economic development strategy and one that the State of Minnesota should emphasize, perhaps even more than it does now. 

To read the policy report, click here. To read a short policy brief on the same topic, click here. The report and short brief are both available in the “Publications” section of the Growth & Justice website at www.growthandjustice.org. For more information about the policy report contact Kane at 651-251-0677 or matt@growthandjustice.org.