Sweet. Now maybe the coalition can stop getting money from taxpayers and quit worrying about not having the bridge to a cornfield. Too bad there's no accountablity for all that public money to a private organization. Time to stop the crying, I guess...

its for the common good...everyone should have to pay :)
lolz

Finally. Now I'll be able to sell my property on the WI side for a fat profit. Has anyone been watching property values over there?

Maybe MN should lower taxes.

lol:) the names you guys come up with are almost as funny as the facts you pull up. True their might more Fortune 500 companies here than Wisc, but maybe that's because the state has been democrat run forever like MN and any republicans in office were weak knee'd pseudo conservatives like Pawlenty... You want to compare Democrat administrations to Republican just look at any blue state like Michigan, Cali, and IL and compare them to a actually conservative state like Texas or Arizona. Or get more specific and compare the taxes, poverty, and crime statistics of those cities.

Contrary to what Dayton wants you to believe, MN is not business friendly and it's getting worse... Lol, he hides his money in North Dakota to avoid MN taxes! Just look at Best buy, State Farm, 3M, Ford, Medtronic, and all the other Fortune 500 companies that are/were here in MN and what they are doing. Best buy keeps having to lay off hundreds of people at a time (last lay off was 400 people); Ford closed their plant in St. Paul; State Farm closed the HQ in Woodbury to move to Indiana; ULine is moving their biggest warehouse in Eagan to Hudson WI; I could go on and on... Companies and jobs are Leaving MN to states with lower taxes and right to work legislation.

High taxes mean big government and small citizens. The captain and people like him want the gov't to make everyone small. It helps him feel less inadequate. He doesn't have to work hard and compete against others because the gov't will be there in the end to even things out -- make things fair by punishing those who take risks and succeed and make the successful "give a little back" to the indolent (and buy their votes). Think of the teacher's unions. Or France and its 75% tax on the rich.

Captain: why doesn't Dayton propose a 75% tax on the successful like the one in France? Wouldn't it make us all more well off. Does Dayton think that people and businesses would move to Hudson? I do.

The debate, arguments, and opinions are meaningless. Watchdog is right. Keep an eye on TX, AZ, ND, all R and doing better than most states, and compared to CA, IL, and MI, all D, bankrupt and getting worse (not to mention socialist France, Spain, Greece). Those will be the facts and the captain's redistribution ideology will be exposed as bad for everyone.

?

Just because a politician can win an election doesn't mean that his ideas are best for everyone. If you're point is that socialist ideas must be good, because socialists win elections then I'm unconvinced. Facts and history show the opposite. Putin and Chavez have won elections. Their people suffer greatly. Spain, France, and Greece elect socialist politicians in fair elections and the countries have slow growth if any and eventually go bankrupt and their citizens suffer. Take away the incentive to work and why would anybody work?

My point is: let Dayton raise taxes as high as he wants. France tried to raise its income tax rate to 75%. Read about the rich people and businesses leaving or not hiring or going out of business. Businesses and money and hard-working people will go where their money and effort are treated best. Those who take from the successful hard working risk-takes should not be surprised if those people move to Texas.

And you're right about republican's attitude of it's my way or the highway. No democrat would do that. Except when Dayton broke the law and tried to unionize home daycare providers without involving the MN legislature (or even asking the daycare providers!). Obama, Pelosi, Reed passing a heathcare law on pure party lines with no R support. Same with $1B stimulus. My way . . . highway . . . . . .

joe, I didn't say that "socialist ideas must be good', this is my point. You take someone's words and twist them into what you "think" they want or what best suits your desire to argue against anything/one from the left.

Yes, I understand what is happening in France, yet Governor Dayton didn't propose a 75% tax on this rich in this state, did he?

Who is taking away anyone's incentive to work? You are all over the place with your Repulican/Conservative talking points, but you're not making any logical sense in regards to this bridge (which the article is about) or in relation to the fiscal and political differences between Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Go ahead, rant on, we wouldn't want the actual topic to get in the way of your far right monologue.

the topic was taxes and how taxes affect the business environment MN v. WI (which is relevant to the bridge). Read the posts prior to yours. Then you changed the topic to last November, republicans, right, and left. Your post doesn't mention the bridge or the previous topic in the thread. That's why I posted the question mark. I couldn't tell how your post fit in with the thread.

High taxes by democrats in MN are taking away people's incentive to work and to start businesses in MN, and to hire people, invest in new buildings (refer to Watchdog and the new Uline bldg in Hudson). That's been the discussion and is the reality that democrats ignore. Keep raising taxes in MN, watch more businesses choose WI.

Yes the November election was mention previous to your post.

Referring to my points as "generic right wing talking points" means they're not valid ideas? That's not very open minded thinking on your part.
Because republicans lost one election cycle in November their ideas are not valid ? Again you haven't convinced me.

Not all Minnesotan's would have to move to have a negative effect on the MN economy. That would just be a more visible example. Uline chose Hudson over MN. That's a fact. And that's my point. Do you think that there are not people in Eagan who would like have had those jobs? Would any of them move to Hudson to work at Uline? Very likely yes. It doesn't have to be only the high tax bracket people. Another fact: State Farm moved headquarters. Jobs lost from MN to WI or IN based in part at least on state tax policy. Business moves, employees move, jobs move. Less visibly, other companies will not choose originate or to expand into high tax states.

"Referring to my points as "generic right wing talking points" means they're not valid ideas?" Again, where did I say they were not valid ideas? (You sure do like to put words in people's mouths). I didn't, what I said was that regurgitating the same talking points from before the election does nothing to further the discussion. As Captain pointed out, Minnesota is doing much better than Wisconsin in mary areas of business and jobs.

"Because republicans lost one election cycle in November their ideas are not valid ?" Again, where did I say that Republican talking points weren't valid? I simply do not find them applicable to the discussion given the facts as they relate to MN and WI.

"Not all Minnesotan's would have to move to have a negative effect on the MN economy." I did not claim that NO businesses or people will move, it's simply not logical to blame Dayton's budget on people and businesses moving...no one can accurately say that, as his budget has not been implemented.

"It doesn't have to be only the high tax bracket people." Of-course not, but aren't you saying that people and business will leave because of tax rates/increases? High income earners are now the main group affected by the prosed increases, if they're not moving to save money, who is moving and why?

If Dayton's original proposal of lowering the corporate tax rate is still in the budget (haven't had time to read it yet) then we will actually have a rate pretty darn equivalent to Wisconsin.

Yes I'm saying that people and businesses will leave and fewer will start or expand in MN if corporate and individual tax rates are high compared to other states. Uline proves that as just a single very visible recent example. Years ago 3M chose to expand in Austin Texas instead of MN. That facility is still there with many former-MN residents. St. Paul's Ford plant has closed instead of re-tooling. If Dayton raises taxes more, more businesses will do the same. Rich people in MN may not move, but like the MN-based owners of U-Line, they may decide to expand or move a business outside of MN. Because of U-Line's move, jobs that could have been in Eagan are in Hudson along with any tax revenues too for that business and its employees and their property and purchases.

I don't know how old this is because it does not have a date. Here's a comparison.

http://www.stcroixedc.com/news_home/WIvsMITax_80Aug.pdf

Differences are small percentages but those become important to businesses over long time periods.

Lowering corporate tax rates in MN would be good. I hope you're right.

A different (non-tax) type of draw not to WI (not-currently right-to-work) but elsewhere (any right-to-work state) is a state's labor laws. Boeing very recently expanded in NC instead of Seattle because of the labor unions in Seattle that were avoided by putting the new plant in NC (right to work state). Ford and Toyota have new auto plants in TN, not MI thanks to labor unions in MI. The unions ruined Detroit. Indiana (which recently became a right-to-work state) is succeeding in attracting manufacturing away from IL and MI.

MN's non-right-to work status and Gov. Dayton's propensity to protect and propagate labor unions (a big Dem voting block), such as by his attempt to unionize home day care providers, are anti-business.

I'll take a look at the link tonight, I must get on task before the day is gone.

This here is where you may have misjudged me....I am not a fan of unions in 2013. ee had a great need for them in this country 100 years ago. Now, many of the unions and their demands are indeed hurting corporate America. However, companies like Walmart, who don't pay their employees a living wage are partly responsible for the 47% that don't pay taxes. If they were to pay their employees a living wage, we could get thousands of people off those handouts that the republicans rail against. There has to be some kind of compromise between these two extremes.

More later, must get back to work...don't worry, its not on anyone else's dime as I'm self employed and get paid by the job, not the hour. :-)

I agree.
I didn't mean to implying that you might favor unions. I cited the anti-business effect of unions as an example in response to your question about what besides tax rates would be a draw to businesses to WI or elsewhere.
I'm self-employed too and understand the need to remain on task.

+1 Joe... why doesn't Dayton wave his magic wand and make the minimum wage $20/hr?

As far as the changing trends of politics it's not a done deal that republicans will gain a majority again in the house and senate in 2014 (state or national) because just like the 2012 election we have a very large demographic that honestly believe we need a bigger government to take more care of us.

Republicans dropped the ball in 2010 in MN and didn't use their voice or majority to do much... that's mostly because over half the republicans aren't fiscal conservatives so they can't get anything done.

I think where we can all agree is staying informed, keeping BOTH republican and democrat politician's accountable when they are wasting tax dollars. Start locally, like I have, and you'd be amazed at the difference you can make. It all starts by actually showing up, doing research, and speaking.

Joe, along with the business to business tax and the additional sales taxes, sadly the decreases in sales tax and corporate tax rate deduction, along with the property tax refund were all dropped in the new proposal. Dayton tried, but the reduction in the in the corporate rate was not attractive enough to make the business to business tax feasible to those loud voices in the business community.

I assume you will say that we shouldn't barter, we should just cut (just guessing), but it's not really how it works. Our schools need more money, not the same or less...new technology and rising populations are a common sense reasons why budgets cannot remain flat, but yes we need to look at union contracts as well....another subject for another day.

Capt. You sound really smart especially with your name calling.
How old are you?

+1, hate to generalize but that's how most liberals respond... Name call, answer questions with a question, change the subject, use emotional subjective arguments instead of logical objective fact based arguments, on and on... I think there's a play book on it. Sad thing is it works, the media loves it, and the public falls for it.