03/30/11 - St. Cloud Times: Your Turn: Dayton's plan is what's needed, by Cynthia Moothart
Your Turn: Dayton's plan is what's needed
Word is Minnesota is broke. And the only talk by Republicans these days is what to cut and by how much. Education, research and development, and high-speed rail all are being eyed to balance the budget.
But we’re suffering less from massive debt than from a deficit of leadership to deal with the real problem at hand. A state report issued recently confirmed that middle-income Minnesotans are shouldering the greatest tax burden at 12.3 percent, while those at the top of the income ladder are paying down about 9 percent.
In response, Minnesota House Speaker Kurt Zellers offered this as proof that we need to cut taxes even more. How the continuation of a policy that resulted in state deficits could be the answer defies logic — and goes against everything we’ve seen in the last year.
Minnesota provided $7 million last year in tax credits to wealthy investors to encourage job creation. These angel investments, according to the nonprofit Jobs Now Coalition, created a paltry 47 positions at taxpayer cost of $148,936 per job. Under the current GOP tax-cut plan, another $200 million would be given to corporations, without any guarantee that they would use this money to create jobs or otherwise invest in Minnesota’s economy.
Worse yet, almost half would go to out-of-state corporations. Compare those figures to a time when actual investment, not tax cuts, drove state policy.
Between 1983 and 1987, the Minnesota Emergency Employment Development program put 7,400 people to work in its first six months and more than 42,000 in three years. Estimates now are that $200 million in direct funding for such a program would generate 12,000 jobs a year, at a cost to taxpayers of $16,000 per job.
For such investment to take place, Gov. Mark Dayton has proposed a fourth tax tier on high-income earners that would bring their total payment closer to those already footing the bill for much-needed investment in our state.
Dayton’s budget is fair, modest and what Minnesota needs to secure its competitive future.
www.sctimes.com/article/20110330/OPINION/103300031/1001/News/Your-Turn-Dayton-s-plan-what-s-needed