Author Topic: This Billionaire Governor Taxed the Rich and Increased the Minimum Wage.and now.  (Read 1852 times)

Straw Man

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This Billionaire Governor Taxed the Rich and Increased the Minimum Wage — Now, His State’s Economy Is One of the Best in the Country

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 law guaranteeing equal pay for women. Republicans like state representative Mark Uglem warned 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 fourth highest in the country, it has the fifth 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 fifth fastest-growing in the United States. Forbes even ranked Minnesota the ninth 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.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carl-gibson/mark-dayton-minnesota-economy_b_6737786.html


Erik C

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Since his minimum wage increase doesn't go into effect until 2018, it's a bit early to start cheering. Every time the minimum wage rate is increased, low end jobs disappear. As for his "higher tax rate on the rich" goes, there are plenty of loop holes to keep the rich, including himself, rich. "Tax The Rich" has always been "show business" to sucker the poor into voting for democrats. Is that rich liberal supporter of Hillary, Warren Buffet, still paying less income tax, percentage wise, than his secretary?


Straw Man

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Since his minimum wage increase doesn't go into effect until 2018, it's a bit early to start cheering. Every time the minimum wage rate is increased, low end jobs disappear. As for his "higher tax rate on the rich" goes, there are plenty of loop holes to keep the rich, including himself, rich. "Tax The Rich" has always been "show business" to sucker the poor into voting for democrats. Is that rich liberal supporter of Hillary, Warren Buffet, still paying less income tax, percentage wise, than his secretary?

every time eh?

LOL

Soul Crusher

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every time eh?

LOL

Our ruling

Occupy Democrats said that Minnesota "is creating jobs at a record pace, unemployment is at a historic low, median income is skyrocketing, and (the) state has a billion-dollar surplus." While Minnesota is doing well on several key economic measurements, its achievements do not qualify as a "record," "historic" or "skyrocketing." Only the meme’s budget surplus claim is correct. On balance, we rate the claim Half True.


tonymctones

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I did, politifact Rated their claims half true

Straw Man

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I did, politifact Rated their claims half true

which specific claim in the article I posted is half true

Erik C

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every time eh?

LOL

YES, EVERY TIME! Most of the jobs at the lowest level of pay are provided by small businesses. When the cost of providing those jobs goes up, a lot of those jobs just disappear, as they were non-essential, and at increased cost, disposable.

tonymctones

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which specific claim in the article I posted is half true

Read the articles for yourself, apt of the benefits their claiming started before he made the changes they are attributed to.

Look I'm open to the concept of higher taxes helping the economy. Are you open to the concept that they can hurt the economy?

Straw Man

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YES, EVERY TIME! Most of the jobs at the lowest level of pay are provided by small businesses. When the cost of providing those jobs goes up, a lot of those jobs just disappear, as they were non-essential, and at increased cost disposable.

cool, then you should be able to provide an abundance of examples and there would also be no examples of minimum wage increase which did not result in job losses

have at it

Straw Man

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Read the articles for yourself, apt of the benefits their claiming started before he made the changes they are attributed to.

Look I'm open to the concept of higher taxes helping the economy. Are you open to the concept that they can hurt the economy?

I read my article and also your links (hint - I saw the links you posted before I posted the article)

you posted links that refute claims that don't appear in my article

tonymctones

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I read my article and also your links (hint - I saw the links you posted before I posted the article)

you posted links that refute claims that don't appear in my article

Actually they do again things like job creation were already on the rise before taxes were raised and the minimum wage hiked.

Straw Man

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Actually they do again things like job creation were already on the rise before taxes were raised and the minimum wage hiked.

the article I posted never claimed that the tax increases were the sole driver in all the increase in jobs...did it?

I thought tax increases were supposed to be job killers?

tonymctones

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the article I posted never claimed that the tax increases were the sole driver in all the increase in jobs...did it?

I thought tax increases were supposed to be job killers?
Lmfao so the argument is that higher taxes equals less jobs created, not higher taxes equals no jobs created.

I never said it claimed that but it does take credit for all the jobs created even though many of them were created before his reforms were implemented

Erik C

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cool, then you should be able to provide an abundance of examples of there would be no examples of minimum wage increase which did not result in job losses

have at it

Obviously, you never studied the subject, nor ever provided any jobs to the economy. I'm not here to tutor you in the subject of economics, unless you want to pay for lessons, and then they will be expensive.

I'll give you one example. A small businessman, had a retail store. It was open 6AM to 8PM, and 6 to 5 on Saturdays. He had four employees, three part timers, before a minimum wage increase. They were employees who were there for his convenience. He'd open the store, an employee held down the fort, while he went out for a long breakfast and errand running. He'd stop back at the store, other part time employees would come and go, he'd take a long lunch, later a long dinner, visit here and there, throughout the day, but then the minimum wage increase came, and made him sit down a do the numbers.

When he realized what the employees were now costing him, he let the part timers go, put the full timer on part time, and spent more time in his store, and managed his time better. I guess you could say that government interference in the free market, for wages here, made him a much more efficient small businessman. Repeat that scenario tens of thousands of time, each time the minimum wage is increased, because it happens every time.

Straw Man

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Lmfao so the argument is that higher taxes equals less jobs created, not higher taxes equals no jobs created.

I never said it claimed that but it does take credit for all the jobs created even though many of them were created before his reforms were implemented

where does it say in the article that it takes credit for all jobs created?

tonymctones

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where does it say in the article that it takes credit for all jobs created?
Bc it cites and touts all jobs created during his tenure, not just the ones created after his reforms...

Straw Man

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Obviously, you never studied the subject, nor ever provided any jobs to the economy. I'm not here to tutor you in the subject of economics, unless you want to pay for lessons, and then they will be expensive.

I'll give you one example. A small businessman, had a retail store. It was open 6AM to 8PM, and 6 to 5 on Saturdays. He had four employees, three part timers, before a minimum wage increase. They were employees who were there for his convenience. He'd open the store, an employee held down the fort, while he went out for a long breakfast and errand running. He'd stop back at the store, other part time employees would come and go, he'd take a long lunch, later a long dinner, visit here and there, throughout the day, but then the minimum wage increase came, and made him sit down a do the numbers.

When he realized what the employees were now costing him, he let the part timers go, put the full timer on part time, and spent more time in his store, and managed his time better. I guess you could say that government interference in the free market, for wages here, made him a much more efficient small businessman. Repeat that scenario tens of thousands of time, each time the minimum wage is increased, because it happens every time.

I didn't ask you for an imaginary example of a single business

there are plenty of cities that have increased minimum wage and since EVERY TIME  that happens the result is job losses just provide some links to data about those cities

should be a piece of cake since you can literally pick any city that has raised the minimum wage and be able to prove this and of course there would be no city that raised that mimimum wage that didn't experience job losses

Straw Man

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Bc it cites and touts all jobs created during his tenure, not just the ones created after his reforms...

and also claims that all increases were soley due to tax increases?

did I miss that part?

tonymctones

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and also claims that all increases were soley due to tax increases?

did I miss that part?
Lol the last bolded paragraph states he was able to transform the economy by raising taxes and hiking the min wage etc.

The economy was already transforming before he made those changes

Erik C

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I didn't ask you for an imaginary example of a single business

there are plenty of cities that have increased minimum wage and since EVERY TIME  that happens the result is job losses just provide some links to data about those cities

should be a piece of cake since you can literally pick any city that has raised the minimum wage and be able to prove this and of course there would be no city that raised that mimimum wage that didn't experience job losses

Hey! It was your dumb ass post citing the Huffington Post as a source. How about you cite sources, that state the unemployment rate stays the same, or employment, job growth, increases after minimum wage increases.

tonymctones

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and also claims that all increases were soley due to tax increases?

did I miss that part?
The minimum wage hike didn't go into effect until summer of 2014 and the tax hike of 2% went into effect in 2013. Why then would you count jobs created from 2011-2015?

tonymctones

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Like I said straw I'm open to the idea of higher taxes helping, it will undoubtedly cost jobs in certain companies but the overall increase may be bigger.

Using an example where they attribute job gains to actions taken after the jobs were created and comparing them to numbers where the economy had gone through one of the biggest recessions ever and was just starting to recover is not the way to make your point