Click picture to hear small business owner Brad Nelson of Rochester talk about taxes
Two owners of Minnesota small businesses give Governor Mark Dayton some unexpected support during his public budget discussion in Rochester, Minnesota.
“My name is Brad Nelson, I’m a member of the Rochester area chamber of commerce. I work in town and some years ago my wife and I started a small business.
“About five years ago we invested another, close to three-quarters of a million dollars in our business and not once ever did we discuss Minnesota tax rates. They’re irrelevant to me.
“If the tax rates to sustain the Minnesota I grew up in need to go up a little bit, as a small business owner and a member of the area chamber of commerce I’m more than happy to pay it. I’ll just go out and make more money. And that’s an incentive to me to make a little more money. We just never discuss Minnesota tax rates.
“I want the quality of life to stay the way it is in Minnesota, the way it is, the way I grew up in. And (Representative Steve) Drazkowski (R-Mazeppa), no offense, but we never discussed tax rates and I never would dream of leaving Minnesota. So thank you.”
During his brief statement at the forum today, Representative Steve Drazkowski (R_Mazeppa) did not say that taxes cause businesses to leave Minnesota. But the Republican party has made statements to that effect in the past.
