Just about 25 months ago, the Republican Party controlled both chambers of the state legislature, and a budget impasse with Governor Dayton was edging closer and closer to the July 1, 2011 state shutdown.
It's easy to forget other news of that period, even when one of those items has consequences this summer.
Take this business story. On June 17, 2011, Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal staff writer SamBlack reported in Uline Plans huge Hudson warehouse:
Uline Inc., a company that sells packaging equipment and supplies to businesses, plans to construct a 640,000-square-foot building in Hudson, Wis., where it will relocate its Eagan distribution center.
It would be the biggest new industrial building developed in the Twin Cities in the past 20 years, according to CB Richard Ellis Inc. broker Raymond Reese, who consulted with Uline on its site selection.
Uline, based in Pleasant Prairie, Wis., which is near Chicago, asked the city of Hudson to rezone a 63-acre vacant field in the southwest part of town to allow for industrial uses. That land is now zoned for retail.
It expects to begin constructing the 610,000-square-foot warehouse and 30,000 square feet of office space in 2012. Its plans include adding 389,000 square feet to the complex within a decade, bringing the total building to 1.03 million square feet.
When the first phase is open in 2013, Uline expects to employ about 175 people, including about 20 to 25 new jobs. The rest of the jobs will be relocated from Eagan, where Uline now operates two distribution centers that total about 300,000 square feet, said Ty Beucler, operations manager for Uline in Eagan. . . .
Over neighborhood resistance, the Hudson City Council approved the rezoning in July 2011, the Hudson Patch reported in Hudson Cou[n]cil's Rezoning of 64 Acres Draws Criticism.
So what does conservative troll Sheila Kihne tweet today--and Minnesota state representative Pat Garofalo, True North designer and blogger Derek Brigham, blogger John Gilmore, Minnesota House communications staff genius Peter Glessing,and two others re-tweet? "
Postcard from ULINE. They're moving their massive Eagan warehouse to Hudson. Way to go DFL anti-biz MORONS pic.twitter.com/8INSElsYqs
— SheilaKihne (@SheilaKihne) July 12, 2013
Yes, blame that 2011 business decision (and December 2011 groundbreaking) on the opposing party.
Or perhaps Minnesota House Republican communications staffer Andrew Wagner is offering to have his own caucus--now in the minority--take responsibility for the 2011 decision in his modified tweet:
Taxes have consequences. MT @SheilaKihne: ULINE moving massive Eagan warehouse to Hudson. pic.twitter.com/t5dpTm0kly #mnleg
— Andrew Wagner (@andrewwagner) July 12, 2013
Photo: Image of the postcard a conservative troll tweeted. Did it ever cross any of their minds how long it takes to build and re-locate a warehouse?
Update: Since ULINE is a Wsconsin-based company, it would not have based its choice to relocate on a Scott Walker tax incentive designed to lure businesses to the Badger state. As Bluestem noted when Minnesota Republicans used this argument when some manufacturing was shifted to an existing Hutchinson Technology Incorporated plant in Eau Claire, HTI--like ULINE, a Wisconsin-based company--couldn't take advantage of this touted tax break because both have been operating in Wisconsin for the last three years. See Playing politics with pain: Glenn Gruenhagen blames Hutch Tech lay-off on taxes and Playing the politics of pain, part 2: Will Hutchinson Technology receive Wisconsin's two-year tax credits/deductions for relocation?and Having it all in Hutchinson: Senator Scott Newman shows up for photo op.
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