Print this story | E-mail story | This story has 14 comments Add your own | iPod friendly
Wake up, Minnesota! Jobs are at risk
Published Friday, April 18, 2008
The news that Northwest Airlines is merging with Delta Airlines came as no real surprise. We knew it was going to happen. We just didn't know when.
It is unfortunate that when the announcement was finally made, the thought of losing a major corporate partner and thousands of jobs was met with a rather dull thud around the state.
Minnesota needs to wake up. Northwest Airlines is a symptom of a much larger problem. What happened to Northwest Airlines could happen to any number of businesses in any region of the state.
There are things that the Minnesota Legislature can and must do to make sure it doesn't happen again.
Job creation should be our top priority. We have heard a lot of rhetoric this session over the number of jobs we are creating through a few bills. While this is positive news for our state, it just scratches the surface of the much larger problem.
Minnesota is closing its borders to job creation and pushing businesses out of the state, taking Minnesota jobs with them.
The legislative agenda of the past two years has done nothing to retain and generate the jobs we need in Minnesota to drive the economy.
Our top priority should be jobs, and not just jobs created by government for short term bonding projects or state agencies. We must create an environment that allows businesses to succeed and creates jobs.
Minnesota has a lot to offer. We have a high quality of life with abundant natural resources, low crime, great schools and one of the best health care systems in the nation. While those make our state an attractive place to live, work and raise a family, they do little to combat the high taxes that drive jobs out of our state and prevent new ones from coming here.
According to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation, Minnesota ranks among the 10 worst states to grow jobs or start a business. We have the third highest corporate income tax, sixth highest individual income tax, eleventh highest state/local tax burden and the sixteenth highest sales tax in the nation.
All of these taxes negatively impact job creation, development and retention. To make matters worse, the Democrats in charge of the Minnesota House as part of their budget balancing act have proposed to eliminate every incentive program the state provides to keep jobs in the state and recruit new ones to come here.
The last thing we need to do when our state is facing a near billion deficit and losing thousands of jobs is remove the very incentives that create jobs.
Minnesota is not an island. We cannot compete with states that have lower taxes nor can we continue to afford to lose jobs to those who offer more welcoming economies and environments.
The loss of Northwest Airlines is a terrible blow to the state's economy. It will also have a negative impact on the schools, local businesses and communities that the thousands of employees at Northwest Airlines call home.
We are one Minnesota. We cannot sit back and hope that our community doesn't see what is happening in Eagan, Apple Valley or Farmington. We must join together with the common focus on job creation.
The time to act is now.
Minnesota must proactively seek solutions that stimulate business development and job creation, not hinder our state's economic recovery with high taxes and loss of tax incentives for job creators.
Marty Seifert (R-Marshall) is the House Minority Leader in the Minnesota Legislature.
Comments
The Daily Journal is happy to host community conversations about news and life in Fergus Falls and the surrounding area. As hosts, we expect guests will show respect for each other. That means we don't threaten or defame each other, and we keep conversations free of personal attacks. Witty is great. Abusive is not. If you think a post violates these standards, don't escalate the situation. Instead, flag the comment to alert us. We'll take action if necessary. It's not hard. This should be a place where people want to read and contribute -- a place for spirited exchanges of opinion. So those who persist with racist, defamatory or abusive postings risk losing the privilege to post at all.Posted by chipmunk (anonymous) on April 18, 2008 at 1:52 p.m. (Suggest removal)
There you go again! That same tired old overused, worn-out republican claptrap. If you little people want jobs you have to give corporations tax breaks. Northwest Airlines was given tax break after tax break with few if any conditions. One condition that was somehow extracted was that they (Northwest) would keep their headquarters in Minnesota. With this merger, plans are to move corporate headquarters to another state. I cant wait to see who will be the first republican to hold the management of Northwest’s feet to the fire and demand the return of all tax moneys given away when they move their headquarters.
Posted by Mel (anonymous) on April 18, 2008 at 4:17 p.m. (Suggest removal)
If you want business to thrive, give them a tax break. I don't mean a break here and there, I mean ALL business, All the time, equal treatment. I can hardly believe what some small business places have to pay in taxes, I wonder how they can keep going sometimes. Think about the tax incentives that are offered to start up business, a tax break for a couple of years. It would help a lot more if every business had a tax break, permanently. It isn't fair to give a break to one and not the other.
Posted by FungusAmugus (anonymous) on April 18, 2008 at 6:11 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Tax breaks for businesses? WHAT! Govt. HANDOUTS that's SOCIALISM!!!!!!!
what happened to work hard and earn what you work for, and pay your OWN way!!!
oh wait this is different, right.
Posted by Mel (anonymous) on April 18, 2008 at 7:45 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Lower taxes are not Gov't hand outs. It is nice to have something for yourself after all that hard work instead of, if you have anything left, send it in.
Posted by realitychk (anonymous) on April 18, 2008 at 9:07 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Over 1,000 teachers are slated to lose their jobs for the next school year, but it doesn't seem to get anyone's attention. This should be the real wake up call.
Posted by Exegesis (anonymous) on April 19, 2008 at 12:59 p.m. (Suggest removal)
"We have a high quality of life with abundant natural resources, low crime, great schools and one of the best health care systems in the nation. While those make our state an attractive place to live, work and raise a family, they do little to combat the high taxes that drive jobs out of our state and prevent new ones from coming here."
So, what you seem to be saying is that we should cut taxes so that businesses will move here to exploit our natural resources, bringing new (most likelly low-paying) jobs with them that will probably cause the crime rate to increase, overload an already struggling (from cuts because of the anti-tax crowd), and hope they can pay for health insurance so they can use the health care system.
That's friggen brilliant!
Wake Up Marty!!
Posted by FungusAmugus (anonymous) on April 19, 2008 at 1:27 p.m. (Suggest removal)
OH I see, so lower taxes for someone to have a business as opposed to someome who does not, is NOT considered Govt. ASSISTANCE?
Meaning that someone who is trying to get a start in owning their own business and needs HELP from the Govt. because they otherwise could NOT AFFORD to start or SUSTAIN that business, AND does NOT have to pay it back is DIFFERENT then any other program the Govt. might have that is designed to give assistance or help to a nonbusiness owning person.
I don't know how anyone could not see that this is totaly DIFFERENT right!
Posted by Mel (anonymous) on April 19, 2008 at 3:12 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I am quite sure that the start up business has to pay all the normal taxes, like income tax, and a raft of others. I don't see why a business should have to pay a business tax if no money is made. BTW all taxes are passed on. It makes everything cost more.
Posted by jenmoser (anonymous) on April 19, 2008 at 6:33 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Unfortunately, living in Illinios right by O'Hare Airport has given me some insite into the issues with airlines. We here reports everyday, including Pilots calling in to radio stations in Chicago. Airlines are outsourcing to China for cheap labor, they are hiring workers with little training to repair planes. They cannot afford to pay there workers in America, so why not go where they can? My doctor quit delivering babies because his 1 million insurance was too expensive, and more doctors will leave the state if something isn't done. Our economy needs total reform, and we need to kill both the Democratic and Republican party, as both are rooted in corruption and destruction of small business and the average working taxpayer.
Posted by FungusAmugus (anonymous) on April 21, 2008 at 3:57 a.m. (Suggest removal)
OH ya! INCOME TAX another perk business owners get, they pay themselves poverty wages on paper to relieve themselves of income tax, and find a raft of other exemptions to take with that, like claiming personal trips, vehicles, fuel and on and on. I see the govt. idea behind this but I get a kick out of all the BUSINESS OWNERS who complain about all the GOVT. ASSISTANCE out there and how it should not be allowed, but fail to see they too are standing in line for their share of Govt. ASSISTANCE probably more so than anyone else, but that their "handout's" as they so frequently call them are more justified to them so it's OK , you know "this is different", because it pertains to them.
Posted by hethas1 (anonymous) on April 21, 2008 at 10:44 a.m. (Suggest removal)
How is lowering taxes a hand-out or assistance? Lowering taxes just allows you to keep more of what's yours, what you EARNED, versus having to give it away to the government and letting them decide who to hand your money to.
Posted by FungusAmugus (anonymous) on April 21, 2008 at 6:02 p.m. (Suggest removal)
If you take a person and tell them they do not have to pay as much for something as the majority of the rest, because they claim they could not afford it, that is called assistance, which most of those same people would normaly call a HANDOUT except when it come to themselves because that is different because it pertains to them.
business get tax exemptions,subsidies, incentives as they might call them, because they claim otherwise they would not be able to afford to stay in business, basicly they do not have to pay the normal taxes that everyone else does, that is ASSISTANCE. It's a good idea but I just get a kick out of when these same people who are prospering from these INCENTIVES, complain about Govt. "Handouts" and can't see they are probably the biggest receipiants of these "Handouts" or assistance.
Posted by Mel (anonymous) on April 21, 2008 at 7:09 p.m. (Suggest removal)
FungusAmugus, I don't suppose you have ever been in business for yourself.
Posted by FungusAmugus (anonymous) on April 22, 2008 at 5:26 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Actually ,I know of all the advantages of converting personal expenditures into allowable deductions first hand !
Post a comment
(Requires free registration.)