As this is written, Tom Emmer has just finished announcing Part One of his budget plan – the one that the DFL and the Chanting Class has been wondering about for the past two months.

To paraphrase James Carville, Part One is about the jobs, stupid.

Emmer is going to…:

1. Lower The Corporate Income Tax. This will enable new businesses to get profitable faster, and allow large companies to stay that way – forestalling layoffs, enabling job additions, and addressing business’ #1 complaint about doing business in Minnesota, our top-in-the-nation business and corporate tax rates.
2. Increase The “Angel” Investor Credit. “Angel” investors – people who are willing to take long shots on new companies that don’t yet have established sales, assets or revenues.  They are what get new companies off the ground, and allow them to survive and make payroll until they turn a profit – are in many ways the lynchpin of the new economy.  Of all “new economies”, really.  Angel Investors were the underpinning of much of the high-tech revolution that transformed our economy, and our lives really, for the past fifty years.  Currently, investors can deduct 25% of their investment (up to $125,000 from a $500,000 investment); Tom Emmer will increase that credit.
3. Accelerate The Refunds From The Sales Tax Exemption On Capital Purchases.  Minnesota allows a refund of sales taxes on capital equipment –  in the tax cycle after the equipment is purchased.  Emmer will front-load that – essentially lopping sales taxes off of capital equipment, making it easier – 7% easier – for companies to buy the equipment they need, when they need it to be easiser, when they buy the equipment; freeing up 7-and-change-percent of the company’s revenue to do more important things – like hire people.

By the way – as noted above, Minnesota currently has a Sales Tax exemption for capital purchases. Someone tell alleged “smart guy” and “political expert” Tom Horner, who seems to believe that’s not the case.

From the Emmer press release:

The GOP candidate noted that all of the tax relief measures in his plan have received bipartisan support in the legislature and were endorsed by the 21st Century Tax Reform Commission in its 2009 report. Also, small and large companies alike will benefit from two of the three tax cuts in the Emmer Jobs Agenda, ensuring benefits to the broadest range of Minnesota employers, including those which make little or no profits.

More on this as the week progresses.

Over the next two weeks, we’ll see Emmer’s plan for reforming education and state regulatory processes.

This entry was posted by by Mitch Berg on Monday, September 6th, 2010 at 1:00 pm and is filed under Business, The Economy and The Markets, Campaign '10, Capitalism v Socialism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.