{"id":5136,"date":"2009-07-28T06:36:03","date_gmt":"2009-07-28T11:36:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=5136"},"modified":"2009-07-28T12:56:52","modified_gmt":"2009-07-28T17:56:52","slug":"the-minnesota-short-sell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=5136","title":{"rendered":"The Minnesota Short-Sell"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, I noted<\/a> that all that talk about companies leaving Minnesota for lower-tax states like the Dakotas is not, in fact, wind in sails.<\/p>\n

Over on Twitter, someone thought he had me cornered<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Except taxes didn’t go up & they are still expanding in ND<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s true, but for purposes of business, irrelevant.\u00a0 Businesspeople – smart ones, anyway, especially in capital-intensive businesses like the one I highlighted yesterday – don’t plan based on the current year.\u00a0 They plan ahead.<\/p>\n

And what does someone who plans ahead see in Minnesota’s not-too-distant future?<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Tim Pawlenty – the state’s sole bulwark against a DFL whose economic philosophy is “spend other peoples’ money like we’re one of those Sweet Sixteen <\/em>contestants” – is leaving office at the end of this term.<\/li>\n
  2. The Ventura<\/strike> “Independence” Party – which, in soaking away center-left votes from the DFL, likely kept Pawlenty in power, added a few points of padding to Paulsen’s winning margin, and arguably helped keep Bachmann there – is going to lose major-party status one of these next go-arounds.<\/li>\n
  3. The Minnesota GOP hasn’t inspired confidence in the past three cycles; the new regime on Park Street (including my friend Michael Brodkorb) has to earn their spurs by winning some elections.\u00a0 There is hope – I suspect Obama is going to melt down and take a lot of Dems with him, sooner than later\u00a0– but if you’re a businessman, hope isn’t a plan.<\/li>\n
  4. If 1 through 3 are true, then the DFL will very possibly seize un-fettered (or barely-fettered) control of this state in the next few years.\u00a0 The GOP will likely register gains – but eight years of Republican governors, even good years with an excellent governor, could very easily lead to a “backlash” among the same horde of bovines who thought Jesse Ventura would be a good idea, and whose votes count as much as those of smart people.<\/li>\n
  5. And if\/when that happens (heaven forfend), all hell will break loose in this state.\u00a0 A DFL-controlled legislature with a DFL government will treat Cy Thao’s classic quip (“when you win, you keep your money; when we win, we take your money!”) as gospel; you will be Happy To Pay For A Better Minnesota, or the Minnesota Department of Revenue will do to you what the NYPD did to Abner Louima.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Given that forecast – complete control, over the next 2-4 years, of state government by a party that is less responsible at spending than The Real Housewives of Orange County<\/em> – where would you put your <\/em>business?<\/p>\n

    Pawlenty’s holding of the line on taxes is just the calm before the storm grinds the levees into cat litter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Yesterday, I noted that all that talk about companies leaving Minnesota for lower-tax states like the Dakotas is not, in fact, wind in sails. Over on Twitter, someone thought he had me cornered: Except taxes didn’t go up & they are still expanding in ND That’s true, but for purposes of business, irrelevant.\u00a0 Businesspeople – […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,68,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy-and-the-market","category-capitalism-v-socialism","category-minnesota-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5136\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}