To help Minnesota’s economy, Walz should focus on tax cuts

Governor Walz really wants to help Minnesota’s economy. He wants to make Minnesota a better state for workers and businesses as well. To that, he has unveiled another part of his spending proposal, one which focuses on the economy.

According to the Pioneer Press,

Democratic Gov. Tim Walz continued to rollout pieces of his budget, detailing $4.1 billion in new spending on Thursday that he says will boost the state’s economic future.

Walz’s proposal includes creating a universal program to provide paid family and medical leave to workers, a variety of grants and tax breaks for small businesses, money to address workforce shortages, spending to combat climate change and funds to improve soil and water.

What’s in the proposal?

It includes about $668 million in seed money to get the paid leave program off the ground. The program could eventually pay the money back, state officials have said.

Under the proposal, workers would be eligible for up to 12 weeks of leave while receiving a percentage of their typical pay. A 0.7% payroll tax, which could be split between employers and workers, would raise an estimated $1 billion a year to fund the benefits.

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Also in Walz’s proposal announced Thursday is roughly $454 million in grants and tax breaks to businesses as well as $687 million to grow the state workforce and address shortages in fields like health care and teaching.

But as American Experiment has emphasized over and over again, Minnesota does not have a money problem. Our government takes a bigger proportion of our taxes than do governments in most states. Ergo, our state also spends a lot more of our money than most states.

Our economic woes are not, by any chance, caused by a lack of public funding. What they are potentially caused by, however, is our high taxes, which drive out highly skilled highly productive workers into other low-tax states, as well as discourage investment and entrepreneurship. Our dismal rates of new business formation are evidence of that.

To help Minnesota’s economy, cut taxes. With so many other states cutting their taxes, our state will keep falling behind.