Job Creators Strongly Support Jeff Johnson Over Governor Dayton
Job Creators Strongly Support Jeff Johnson Over Governor Dayton
St. Paul (October 16, 2014) – Today the state’s
largest business group in terms of entities and the premier representative of
small business in Minnesota and nationally, the National Federation of
Independent Business (NFIB), strongly endorsed Jeff Johnson in the Minnesota
Governor’s race. NFIB/MN represents 13,000 small businesses across Minnesota
and its members strongly and enthusiastically have endorsed Jeff Johnson.
“Jeff would be a dramatically better governor and was a very good friend of
ours when he served in the Minnesota House for three terms,” said State
Director Mike Hickey. “He not only voted for small business 100% of the
time, but he was an impressive legislator who tackled major issues, such as the
dramatic reform of eminent domain that he was able to pass on a bipartisan
basis. Small business would be in good hands with Jeff Johnson and we are
excited about the prospect of Jeff serving as our governor.”
“In complete contrast, Governor Dayton has been a big
disappointment for small business and has frequently worked against us on major
issues,” said Hickey. “You cannot claim to cherish jobs and
simultaneously work against the job creator. That pretty well describes
Governor Dayton’s performance during these past four years.”
Hickey cited a long list of disappointments with the most
recent one occurring when Governor Dayton rejected the waivers to Obamacare
that President Obama himself had offered. They are designed to help small
businesses and individuals deal with the negative fallout and financial
hardship being caused by the law. “Governor Dayton is all in on Obamacare
and apparently is unaware of the financial hardship created for so many small
businesses and their employees. Whether it be large premium increases, the
inconvenience of having to switch carriers, or the absolute frustration for
many trying to deal with our incompetent and inefficient insurance exchange,
Governor Dayton is tone deaf on this issue,” said Hickey.
Governor Dayton has a history of refusing to put small
business first. In 2011/12 he vetoed a significant reduction in the commercial
property tax, vetoed four significant tort reform bills that each addressed a
specific problem in our civil justice system and refused to enact an important
small business rule making reform.
In 2013, Governor Dayton supported a tax bill that truly had
a negative effect on the Minnesota economy and he and other majority party
members rushed to repeal parts of it less than one year later! Left untouched,
however, was the 25% state income tax increase on successful job creators and
investors in small business. The tax
hike gave Minnesota the fourth highest top rate in the nation at 9.85%. NFIB
was opposed to the dramatic increase in the minimum wage that Governor Dayton
signed into law making it $9.50 per hour and worse yet placed an escalator on
the wage.
He also signed into law a new 3.5% assessment on health
insurance policies of small businesses and individuals only to fund our
wasteful and incompetent insurance exchange. Finally, Governor Dayton
signed into law an unworkable provision that puts approximately one third of
the state’s population under the Human Rights Act, making any employee who has
a child under the age of 18, a new protected class, which may result in a
dramatic increase of law suits.
Hickey did acknowledge that Governor Dayton supported a
couple of important changes on the estate tax, which are very beneficial to
family held small businesses and farms, “but the negatives far outweigh the
positives and we enthusiastically endorse Jeff Johnson today.”
