Shot in the Dark

All The News That Fits The DFL Narrative

The regional leftysphere is tweeting up a busy little storm today; as the MNDFL noted on Twitter, “Former head of the MN Business Partnership: the @mngop budget is a “job-killer””.

The uninitiated might think “Wow. That’s quite an indictment of the GOP budget!”

And the tweet linked to a Strib article, entitled “The governor’s budget plan won’t send businesses scurrying“, by one Roger L. Hale, which didn’t do much to disturb that conclusion.  I’ll let you read it yourself; if you’re observant, you’ll note the subtle red herring; tax hikes might not send businesses “scurrying”, but it’ll inhibit them from forming in the first place, or hiring more Minnesota workers.  What good does having 3M or Best Buy or Ecolab plopping their headquarters here do us if they’re not expanding, building and hiring?

But the DFL and Strib (pardon the redundancy) are even less transparent and more perfidious than meets the eye.

The Strib piece notes that Hale is “…a former: CEO of Tennant Co, director of five NYSE companies, chairman of the Minnesota Business Partnership and the Governor’s Workforce Development Council, and successful start-up investor.

And to those who don’t pay much attention, a businessman is a businessman is a businessman.  And probably a Republican.  Right?

Wrong.

Roger Hale, as I noted last summer, contributed six figures to “Alliance For A Better Minnesota”; $110,000 as of this time last year, and tens of thousands more to other DFL candidates and organizations.

But the Strib didn’t see fit to let the reader know that.

The fix is in.

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31 responses to “All The News That Fits The DFL Narrative”

  1. bubbasan Avatar
    bubbasan

    To be fair, when you read “Minnesota Business Partnership,” and “chairman of the Governor’s Workforce Development Council,” one also ought to figure out that the man’s a Democrat, too.

    On the light side, did Tennant grow by cleaning up after dirty hippies protesting GOP political conventions and such? :^)

  2. bubbasan Avatar
    bubbasan

    I liked the bit about “what is the evidence that raising the top level of income taxes is not a better way?”. Well, Illinois, California, and Michigan come to mind as examples of why high marginal tax rates are not good for business, no?

  3. bosshoss429 Avatar
    bosshoss429

    Apparently and conveniently, Mr. Hale missed the fact that Delta Airlines is moving a significant number of jobs to GA! While they are offering jobs to those willing to relocate, it still pulls taxpayers out of the state! An insider there told me the number will be in the mid hundreds range. The speculation is that many of the people in those jobs will not relocate, therefore they will add to our unemployment rolls.

    Funny how the left turds vilify the evil rich CEOs, only do so when the target is a Republican.

  4. bosshoss429 Avatar
    bosshoss429

    Oh, and don’t bet on Polymet staying here, either. Rumor in the financial circles is that they won’t be able to get the additional operating capital that they need because so far, they have more expenses than income!

  5. Kermit Avatar
    Kermit

    Delta Airlines is moving a significant number of jobs to GA
    Thousands, actually. Didn’t we have a tech company in Hutchinson, once upon a time? I seem to recall a thriving taconite industry.
    Idiots like Roger Hale wont be happy until the government controls everything.

  6. JW of Minnesota Avatar
    JW of Minnesota

    Seems like a lot of the ‘business leaders’ of large business in this state are pretty liberal.
    They enjoy blurring the lines between large corporations and government, knowing they’ll be protected while squashing the little guy.

  7. Mr. D Avatar
    Mr. D

    Same sort of reporting that the Strib business section engaged in today. Jim Spencer breathlessly reported how a trustee for an institutional investor holding a million shares of Target stock was demanding that Target end its support for political candidates. Now, wouldn’t you want to listen to an institutional investor holding a million shares of stock?

    Of course, a million shares of Target stock represents 0.14% of the total shares outstanding. But Spencer didn’t see fit to mention that.

  8. Kermit Avatar
    Kermit

    Why don’t these same crusading reporters demand that Target stop selling cheap Chinese goods?

  9. Night Writer Avatar
    Night Writer

    The Strib’s business reporting is about as deep as a dog dish, and even less appealing.

  10. bubbasan Avatar
    bubbasan

    It seems as times that when liberals are confronted with the reality that taxes move the supply and demand curves, they then demand empirical, statistical proof that the effects of the taxation (movement of supply and demand curves) will meet an arbitrarily large shift, statistically demonstrable.

    As if the law of supply and demand is up for debate. Among liberals, of course, it is.

  11. Chuck Avatar
    Chuck

    Caterpillar is warning (not threatening) that they may consider leaving Peoria if Illinois continues to be anti-business. Other states, including South Dakota, are very aggressive in courting this top American company.

  12. Chuck Avatar
    Chuck

    The Target stock holder is a public employees union. Imagine that. A government union trying to get a business to stop giving money to pro-business causes.

  13. Ben Avatar
    Ben

    I’m almost tempted to let it happen just to prove a point.

  14. Kermit Avatar
    Kermit

    It’s gonna happen anyway, Ben. Our state and federal governments have already proven that their incompetence turns whatever they touch into manure. It’s a shame those really smart people in the MSM can’t figure out what is obvious to us plebs. Say, how’s the Star Tribune’s bottom line looking these days? How many papers can Roger Hale buy every day?

  15. bosshoss429 Avatar
    bosshoss429

    Chuck;

    Same thing with Cummins. They acquired Onan a few years back (now called Cummins NPower) to get the rights to the engine that’s in Dodge trucks. People that I know there say that Cummins has threatened to move everything out of MN and go to Indiana.

    If I were in charge of advertising for any company in the Twin Cities, I would not advertise in the Red Star. I can’t believe that Target hasn’t already done so!

  16. bosshoss429 Avatar
    bosshoss429

    DOH! Meant to say I can’t believe that Target hasn’t already pulled their advertising. They damn sure don’t need to do so.

  17. jpmn Avatar
    jpmn

    boss the red star and sickle now delivers the Sunday ads free of charge. What Target is doing is reaching many thousands of people who don’t necessarily buy the paper.

  18. Terry Avatar
    Terry

    Roger L Hale wrote:
    taxable on income over $250,000 to those citizens lucky enough to be in the top 2 percent of income in the state.
    Luck? I guess it was just pure, bad luck that I never spent a decade or more earning a medical degree, or mortgaged my house to gamble on starting a business. This is a tax on income, not capitol. It is a tax on people who earn wages.

  19. Kermit Avatar
    Kermit

    I personally want to spend $60,000 on a BA so I can have the right to pay 40 to 60 percent of my income to the government. It’s the American way!

  20. Leslie Hittner Avatar
    Leslie Hittner

    “What good does having 3M or Best Buy or Ecolab plopping their headquarters here do us if they’re not expanding, building and hiring?”

    I have a question that I still have not seen really adequately answered. How do personal income tax rates affect companies like 3M or Best Buy or Ecolab?

  21. K-Rod Avatar
    K-Rod

    Who makes the big decisions in those companies, the “rich” that the libs are trying to soak or the “poor”?

  22. jpmn Avatar
    jpmn

    Delta is sending more jobs down South. They are taking a hit on the Money MN gave Northwest several years ago. 3M isn’t building new plants here, instead they are expanding overseas or around San Antonio. 3M may even move its headquarters. Ford is closing its plant.

    Who is expanding here Leslie? If MN was a competitive State we would be building as many or more new plants than we were closing.

  23. Mr. D Avatar
    Mr. D

    I have a question that I still have not seen really adequately answered. How do personal income tax rates affect companies like 3M or Best Buy or Ecolab?

    Presumably 3M, Best Buy and Ecolab want to hire top-level talent. If you were an engineer capable of earning six figures and had the choice of living in Minnesota and paying 10% income tax, or living in Florida or Texas where the income tax is zero, where would you go? If you’re going to have to surrender 10% of your income, Minnesota would have to be a hell of a lot better place to live. Is it?

  24. Kermit Avatar
    Kermit

    How do personal income tax rates affect companies like 3M or Best Buy or Ecolab?
    Well Leslie, the people who work in those companies that make the decisions undoubtedly look at their own bottom line as well as that of the company. If it’s a choice between being raped by Mark Dayton or packing up the firm and moving to Georgia, what do you think they will do? Personal income taxes are part of the equation, and folks who make the big bucks can afford to relocate, can’t they?

  25. Terry Avatar
    Terry

    I don’t think that raising local income taxes on high end earners local affect existing big businesses much at all, Leslie. Maybe it would hurt their executive recruitment?
    What it would do is make it marginally more more likely for existing businesses to not do their growing locally. It would also make it more likely that professionals who earn that kind of money, and who could, would take their residency and tax dollars to another state, or encourage those professionals to retire a year or two earlier than they had planned.
    Few businesses are stable. Smaller, newer businesses are dynamic. They grow and hire or shrink go OOB very quickly. Change happens on the margins, and increasing the local tax rate will discourage marginal growth and encourage marginal contraction.

  26. bosshoss429 Avatar
    bosshoss429

    “and folks who make the big bucks can afford to relocate, can’t they?”

    And they do, Kermit. I pointed out a couple of weeks ago that our taxes were the primary reason that Moneygram Int’l. moved their corporate HQ to TX. Granted, the company that bought Moneygram is HQ’d there and the top 6 execs were from there, but they were looking to live here, with at least 3 local Realtors engaged in home searches for them.

    Let’s also consider the huge growth of towns in western WI due to the numbers of 3M, Hartford, Travelers, Andersen Windows and yes, even State employees just to name a few, that moved there! Still close to work, but half the taxes.

  27. bosshoss429 Avatar
    bosshoss429

    Another interesting statistic; US job growth over the past two years has been 37.9% in Right to Work States. In states controlled by greedy union thugs, i.e. MN; only 19.6%

    Hmmmm. Forced union labor, higher personal income taxes, higher business taxes, higher workman’s comp costs, stifling unnecessary regulations, an idiot trust fund governor and a population that largely has an entitlement mindset – now, tell me again why would I want to have the bulk of my business operations in MN?

  28. Kermit Avatar
    Kermit

    My family have all moved to Florida. No income tax, but high unemployment. If the circumstances come together, I’m outta here.

  29. Ben Avatar
    Ben

    Look for Best Buy and other MN companies to start expanding a lot… in North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, Florida and any other state that has lower tax rates than here.

  30. Leslie Hittner Avatar
    Leslie Hittner

    Mr. D. – Yes. I’ve been there (for four years, in fact). And (I realize this is a matter of opinion.) Minnesota is better. I hope Kermit’s relatives have good budgets for AC. Their gonna need it.

    Kermit – What you and I THINK is not the question. What “they” DO is. What does the record say?

    bosshoss429 – Yes, I believe an issue like unions has more to do with job growth than individual income taxes, but like Kermit I don’t have the data to back up my beliefs.

  31. Shot in the Dark » Blog Archive » The Business Guy

    […] week, we took a look at the Strib op-ed by Roger Hale that supported Governor Dayton’s budget plan, whom the Strib […]

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