This
Billionaire Governor Taxed the Rich and Increased the Minimum Wage -- Now, His
State's Economy Is One of the Best in the Country
Posted: 02/24/2015 4:58 pm
EST Updated: 02/24/2015 4:59 pm EST
The next time your right-wing family member or former high
school classmate posts a status update or tweet about how taxing the rich or
increasing workers' wages kills jobs and makes businesses leave the state, I
want you to send them this article.
When he took office in January of
2011, Minnesota governor Mark Dayton inherited a$6.2 billion budget deficit and a 7 percent unemployment rate from his
predecessor, Tim Pawlenty, the soon-forgotten Republican candidate for the
presidency who called himself Minnesota's first true fiscally-conservative
governor in modern history. Pawlenty prided himself on never raising state
taxes -- the most he ever did to generate new revenue was increase the tax on
cigarettes by 75 cents a pack. Between 2003 and late 2010, when Pawlenty was at
the head of Minnesota's state government,he managed to add only 6,200 more
jobs.
During his first four years in
office, Gov. Dayton raised the state income tax from 7.85 to 9.85
percent on individuals earning over $150,000, and on couples earning over
$250,000 when filing jointly -- a tax increase of $2.1 billion. He's also agreed to raise Minnesota's minimum wage to $9.50 an hour by 2018, and passed a state lawguaranteeing equal pay for women. Republicans like state
representative Mark Uglemwarned against Gov. Dayton's tax increases, saying, "The
job creators, the big corporations, the small corporations, they will leave.
It's all dollars and sense to them." The conservative friend or family
member you shared this article with would probably say the same if their
governor tried something like this. But like Uglem, they would be proven wrong.
Between 2011 and 2015, Gov. Dayton
added 172,000 new jobs to Minnesota's economy -- that's
165,800 more jobs in Dayton's first term than Pawlenty added in both of his
terms combined. Even though Minnesota's top income tax rate is the 4th-highest in the country, it has the 5th-lowest unemployment rate in the country at 3.6 percent. According to 2012-2013 U.S. census figures,
Minnesotans had a median income that was $10,000 larger than the U.S. average, and their median income is still $8,000 more than the U.S. average today.
By late 2013, Minnesota's private
sector job growth exceeded pre-recession
levels, and the state's economy was the 5th fastest-growing in the United States. Forbes even
ranked Minnesota the 9th-best state for
business (Scott Walker's "Open For
Business" Wisconsin came in at a distant #32 on the same list). Despite the fearmongering over businesses
fleeing from Dayton's tax cuts, 6,230 more Minnesotans filed in the top
income tax bracket in 2013, just one year after Dayton's tax increases went
through. As of January 2015, Minnesota has a $1 billion budget surplus, and Gov. Dayton has pledged to
reinvest more than one third of that money into public schools. And according
to Gallup, Minnesota's economic confidence is higher than any other state
Gov. Dayton didn't accomplish all of
these reforms by shrewdly manipulating people -- this article describes Dayton's astonishing lack
of charisma and articulateness. He isn't a class warrior driven by a desire to
get back at the 1 percent -- Dayton is a billionaire heir to the Target fortune. It wasn't just a majority in the
legislature that forced him to do it -- Dayton had to work with a Republican-controlled legislature
for his first two years in office. And unlike his Republican neighbor to the east, Gov. Dayton didn't assert his will
over an unwilling populace by creating obstacles between the people and the
vote -- Dayton actually created an online voter registration system, making it easier than ever for
people to register to vote.
The reason Gov. Dayton was able to radically transform
Minnesota's economy into one of the best in the nation is simple arithmetic.
Raising taxes on those who can afford to pay more will turn a deficit into a
surplus. Raising the minimum wage will increase the median income. And in a
state where education is a budget priority and economic growth is one of the
highest in the nation, it only makes sense that more businesses would stay.
It's official -- trickle-down economics is bunk. Minnesota has
proven it once and for all. If you believe otherwise, you are wrong.
No comments:
Post a Comment