What business really needs (and how taxes help pay for it)
The following column by Dane Smith recently appeared in the St. Paul Legal Ledger Capitol Report. It was picked up by several online entities and received positive feedback from the higher education and business community.
The closing debate in the legislative session featured a lot of rhetoric from self-appointed guardians of the business climate in Minnesota, declaring that keeping state taxes at their current historically low level was the only important priority for economic health.
But it was notable how little of this anti-government invective -- at T-party rallies or on talk-radio or the blogosphere -- was coming from the serious and responsible business leadership in this state.
Instead, the mainstream business community in this state seems to be working constructively WITH government and the public sector on specific solutions aimed at resuscitating the state economy, retaining and creating jobs, and improving the state’s quality of life.
Take, for instance, the five-year-old “Grow Minnesota!’’ initiative of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, the state’s largest and most broad-based business advocacy group.The Chamber, by the way, is the group that last year courageously fought and defeated the anti-tax forces, helping push through a modest gas tax increase and desperately needed transportation infrastructure funding.
Grow Minnesota!’s recent work involved Chamber teams making actual visits to 700 companies to determine what they need to hold and expand jobs. Those visits resulted in a consensus that workforce training and education and other infrastructure (mostly paid for with taxes) was vital.
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