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From the daily Kos & Huff Post:
When Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton took office in 2011, Minnesota had more than a $6 billion dollar deficit and an unemployment rate of 7%. Today, Minnesota's unemployment rate is now below 4% and they have a budget surplus of over $1.2 billion dollars. How did Mark Dayton do this? Did he heed his Republican opponent Tom Emmer's advice?

Make no mistake, government cannot create the jobs we need to turn our economy around, but private business people can. State government can either help improve the necessary business climate – as I will do if elected governor – or it can hurt job development, as my opponents’ proposals to maintain the status quo would do.

No. No, he didn't.

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.

We all know that equal pay for women is a slippery slope that leads to voting rights and the loss of corsets and hoop skirts. Mark Dayton's approach of making people who can afford to pay, pay, helped eliminate the deficit. Raising the minimum wage gave more people money to spend. Businesses like money and they like people who have money to spend.

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 4th-highest in the country, it has the 5th-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.

Where does this slick commie-agitator come from?

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 ****** 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.

I might have to move to Minnesota.

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19 Answers

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Good for them. Compare that to Wisconsin, where unemployment is 5.6%, the deficit is over $2 billion, and Bloomberg has just rated Walker's economic performance as "somewhere between lackluster and failure."
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Are there any figures you would believe?

Why do you believe the national figures?
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Oh he raised taxes on the wealthy and stuck business with a big share of the increase but only time will tell if the companies move to Texas or not.
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I survive on a meager Pension & Social Security. so purchasing Any property is out of my reach. A friend here in Thailand wants me to buy a place here.... (She does not realize I know I am not allowed to own property in Thailand.)
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Dang, thought I might have a customer. LOL
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That was the authors comment not mine. I have been in Bangkok for 2 weeks with 50 weeks left. then going back to Calif.
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Good article - If you decide to move, I have 80 acres will sell you.
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The only thing they have frozen is in- state undergraduate tuition. Pawlenty froze spending in 2009, but it didn't fix anything. What has worked is Gov Dayton's tax hikes on the top 2% and targeted increased spending.
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and how did they do it? They froze spending!!! Wow!! What a novel concept....of course next year they will open the spigots once again because all the interest groups see the surplus and feel entitled to a larger budget piece of the pie....the government already figures that next year the surplus of a billion will be down to a surplus of 300 plus million.....
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BINGO!
Over 90 million Americans are unemployed. No way in **** that's only 5.7% of the workforce.
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Here you go. Same advise though

with a 25% tax raise for the middle class, the highest paid welfare in the nation, these so called created jobs are government jobs, minnesota was ranked 41st in private sector jobs created. And Minnesota also counted everyone pulling state unemployment as hired because they are registered with the state, and is slowing down from 2013,

these polls have been proven false because the were caught cherry picking the statistics. This is called a bubble, yes it may look great while the bubble grows, but be warned you are doing the exact same thing detroit is doing mirror image of detroit and when the bubble pops and it will pop you will turn out exactly like detroit
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it is 5.7% only if you don't count the people that have been unemployed for more than 48 hours.

Most likely the same criteria MN is using also
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Sniff sniff! I smell books cooking.
The national unemployment rate is 5.7%... In a moslem pig's eye.
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Good for them. Compare that to Wisconsin, where unemployment is 5.6%, the deficit is over $2 billion, and Bloomberg has just rated Walker's economic performance as "somewhere between lackluster and failure."
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TOO FUNNY

Here you are bragging about Dayton creating jobs in MN- and the VERY NEXT thread is how Dayton is killing jobs in Canada by closing all his Target stores north of the Border.

Seems he is doing his best to make sure he stays in the 1%- and screwing the other 99
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Well, they will make all kinds of excuses. we all know tax breaks for the wealthy are the only way to create jobs & build a surplus... (sarcasm)
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The GOP will be in self denial on this story
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Our daughter lives in MN and is sold on this guy.
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It won't....rest *******
...