One has to hand it to Minnesota's Senate Majority. They're simply not going to give up their talking points about the state's taxes, regardless of what facts slap their rhetoric upside the head.
Take my senator, Scott Newman. When Hutchinson Technology first announced that it was ending manufacturing in Hutchinson and moving the remaining jobs to Thailand and Eau Claire, for the Minnesota Senate Republican, it was all about the Badgers.
As Bluestem reported, HTI wasn't eligible for Governor Walker's tax breaks, and company officials have not mentioned Minnesota taxes as a factor for their decisions. Moreover, HTI announced layoffs in Wisconsin as jobs were shipped to the new plant in Thailand
Newman isn't letting those inconvenient facts get in his way. Last week, the Forum Group's Don Davis reported (via the Pierce County (WI) Herald) in Tax bill passes State Senate:
Sen. Gretchen Hoffman, R-Vergas, said the bill is good because it will help keep businesses in Minnesota.
Sen. Scott Newman, R-Hutchinson, agreed, saying that Hutchinson Technology is sending jobs overseas in a large part because of Minnesota tax law that penalizes businesses. He said the company once employed 2,500 in his community, but just 500 remain.
"In a large part" Scott? Funny how they never brought that up. Was it mentioned in the meeting with elected officials and HTI here in town a few weeks ago? Did that question come up--and did you get answer? I've heard from two sources that company executives didn't attribute the move to Minnesota's tax law.
Nice to have an arcane store of secret business insight. Can I pick that up in Biscay or what?
Tales of Hoffman
Don Davis also quotes Gretchen Hoffman, a yarn entrepreneur who, like Newman, seems to have near-mystical insights into the effects of Minnesota's tax system on business relocation. Last week, the MnDaily reported in Freshman reps shape state's budget battle:
Hoffman said her experience in business helped shape her outlook on policy. She wants to reform Minnesota’s tax and regulatory codes, which she said forced her family’s company to open a new PVC pipe plant in North Dakota instead of Minnesota.
Hoffman admits it’s been hard to reform government spending. Despite criticism that the Republicans’ budget cuts are overzealous, she would like to see even more reductions.
“In our world, we have compromised already,” she said.
The horrors! Hoffman's company being "forced" to open a plant in North Dakota! That does sound dire, indeed, and might be---if GPK Products, Incorporated, hadn't been founded in North Dakota, where Hoffman grew up, in 1972.
Combing through Nexis, government economic development sites, and the web in general, I can't find anything to suggest that taxes--or anything--"forced" the Pflugrath family to start its business making PVC fittings for the wastewater industry in their home state rather than Minnesota, or that they had later plans to start manufacturing in the Gopher State but were "forced" to operate in North Dakota.
Pflugrath family members do seem to be involved in the Northern Pipe Products firm, which opened a plant in Hampton, IA in the aughties; the Associated Press reported that Iowa competed with Minnesota and both the Dakotas for the facility ("North Dakota pipe company to open in Hampton," AP, October 16, 2002, Nexis All News, accessed 4/10/2011). The Iowa plant was closed in 2010, with manufacturing consolidated in NPP's Fargo, North Dakota, plant.
Northern Pipe is owned by the Otter Tail Corporation, which has its headquarters in Hoffman's district, but the publicly owned Otter Tail Company does not appear to be Hoffman' family business. Maybe there's another family business in her world that's based in Minnesota that she hasn't told us about.
But in the tales of Hoffman, perhaps being from North Dakota is enough of a compromise.
Photos: Scott Newman (above); Gretchen Hoffman (below).
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