Issue Position: Jobs and the Economy

Issue Position

Taxes placed upon small business is one of the chief deterrents to job creation in Minnesota. It curtails entrepreneurial business ventures as well as job innovation and business expansion. Until Minnesota becomes a more business friendly state we will be stuck in a self-perpetuating bureaucratic quagmire that promotes increasing taxes rather than promoting growth.

Currently Minnesota ranks 6th in the country for total state tax revenue per capitia. Creating a business friendly environment and thereby increasing total taxable revenue can reduce individual and business taxes. Business growth creates jobs, which create personal wealth, which increases demand for products and services. This in turn creates more business stability, which creates yet more jobs and the cycle continues. It is a win-win for the citizen and the government. Conversely, I have yet to see a nation, state or economy tax itself into prosperity. I have seen however free market economies using sound market principles -- without government interference -- bear true fruits and raise all people to a higher standard of living. Even at minimum wage, the American worker is still one of the wealthiest people in the world, but just as importantly, we live in a country where everyone has the potential to do even better if they so desire. One has to ask at this point, "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?" If the answer to that is "No", then to keep doing the same thing over again is a lesson in futility rather than a leap into prosperity. Indeed, Albert Einstein opined that the very definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results.

The PolyMet Project on the Mesabi Range is a typical example how government has created hurdles instead of highways for the miners on the Range and the tax base for Minnesota. This project holds great promise for the futures of both the Range and for all of Minnesota but government bureaucracy and national special interest groups have held this project hostage for 5 years. The NorthMet Project near Hoyt Lakes represents the vanguard of the rebirth of the Iron Range; this time as a producer of nonferrous metals like nickel, copper and platinum. It is not helpful that Congressman Oberstar's proposed America's Commitment to Clean Water Act (ACCWA) will further introduce obstacles in bringing prosperity to the Range. The ACCWA will erode the possibility of hundreds of direct support jobs and thousands of ancillary jobs to an area to which the fruits of an economic recovery have proven elusive.

Source