Candidates spar over budget, jobs in SD59 race

If there's one Minneapolis special election to watch this year – the city is up to three so far – it's the skirmish taking place east of the river.

Sen. Larry Pogemiller's departure from the reliably left-leaning seat covering Northeast and Dinkytown has sent a slew of Democrats rushing to fill it, each touting name recognition or high-profile endorsements. They converged in the Sheridan neighborhood Wednesday night at a well-attended tête-à-tête hosted by the local DFL, just ahead of Tuesday's primary.

The race features five DFL candidates. The only Republican, Ben Schwanke, was not present Wednesday night.

The forum lasted more than two hours and touched on nearly every topic currently in front of the Legislature. Two in particular, job creation and budget solutions, offered candidates a chance to distinguish themselves from the pack.

First up: How do we expand jobs in Minnesota? The panel agreed on one method: more investment in education.

Ostrow added that Minneapolis could get property taxes under control by leaving the local government aid system. That would let City Hall retain the city's sales tax dollars, rather than funneling them through the state.

"These property taxes are killing our small businesses," Ostrow said.

Instead, Wagenius said, there should be more investment in higher education, high speed transit and cultural amenities to enhance the state's competitiveness.

Frey said the state should create more public jobs in teaching, construction and law enforcement. To incentivize private sector job creation, he suggested subsiding employee income during their training period.

"After those three months are over, you've got an employer with a productive worker," Frey said. You've got an employee with a job. And you don't need to pay for unemployment during that period of time."

Noor said the state should invest in small businesses. He added that, "We have to streamline how the government works in terms of licensing. We must address the cultural issues that exist so that we can help people succeed in businesses."

Dziedzic said one of her first priorities as senator would be to push for a major bonding bill for infrastructure projects. She also proposed expanding two Hennepin County programs that provide startup funds to small companies.

Moderators later asked the candidates to offer some "creative" solutions to the state's budgetary problems. Everyone agreed that the fix should include higher taxes on the wealthy.

"If you give a rich person one dollar in tax breaks, where does that dollar go? That dollar goes on a big pile with about a million other dollars," Frey said.

Ostrow said the state would have to raise taxes on more than just the top 2 percent, however. "I'm going out on a limb a little bit because I'm saying taxes are going to go up at least to some extent on the bottom 98 percent of the population in Minnesota," Ostrow said.

He noted that the state could garner $400 million a year by expanding the sales tax to clothing. He also advocated for a corporate tax overhaul.

Noor advocated for taxing the rich, but echoed Ostrow's sentiment that "we have to share the sacrifice." "You have told me that you are willing to pay more to move our state forward," Noor said. He did not elaborate on what kind of tax that would entail.

She noted that the government can save money by allowing workers to take occasional days off without pay in the summer, cleaning buildings during the day and recommissioning buildings – all of which she has overseen at Hennepin County.

Wagenius disagreed with the "creative" premise of the question, arguing that "the creativity we've seen out of the state has been incredibly destructive." He said the state needs to be honest about shifts and account for inflation "on both sides of the books."

"I believe that the right kind of creativity comes from constraint," Wagenius said. "From putting yourself in an honest box and then asking how you're going to get out of it. Not from looking at the margins and figuring out how you can shift stuff around and make [it] look balanced."

Ostrow, more than any other candidate present Wednesday, frequently found himself disagreeing with the rest of the panel. He was the only candidate, for example, to support public subsidies for the Vikings stadium.

He reasoned that while the current stadium proposals are a "rip-off" for the public, "someone from Minneapolis has to be at the table. Especially if this is going to be in Minneapolis. Somebody has to be at the table to drive the hard bargain."