Groups lay out their legislative wish lists

With less than three weeks until the kickoff of the 2015 Legislative session, interests representing business and the environment laid out their priorities on Thursday.

The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce says it will focus on tax relief for small and midsize businesses, a rollback of automatic increases in the minimum wage that are supposed to account for inflation, and changes in how transportation projects are funded in the state.

On tax relief, chamber officials say that Minnesota's corporate tax rate of 9.8 percent is too high, and ranks third highest in the nation, while its research and development tax credit has fallen behind those of other states.

The chamber also wants the Legislature to adopt a 10-year funding plan and find revenue sources that go beyond fuel taxes, vehicle registration and the motor vehicle sales tax. Bentley Graves, director of the chamber's health and transportation policy, said 33 states use money from the general fund to pay for roads and bridges, and that Minnesota should be among them.

"We're not suggesting that any dedicated sources go away, we're talking about how to get additional investment in the system," he said. Chamber officials would not say directly whether they opposed a standard gasoline tax increase.

Ben Gerber, the chamber's manager of energy and labor/management policy, said the 2015 Legislature should move to repeal automatic, inflationary increases to the minimum wage.

"We see a real problem with setting things on autopilot," Gerber said. "We elect legislators, we hold elections to put people in office to make these tough decisions, especially on an issue like the minimum wage, that legislators should be making that decision and it shouldn't be put on an automatic index." That automatic increase mechanism does not take effect until 2018. Gerber noted that Minnesota is the only state in the Upper Midwest with wage indexing, and a failure to repeal could send a signal to businesses eyeing a move across the border.

Also laying out a legislative agenda on Thursday was an alliance of green energy, labor and faith groups that plan to mount a campaign to get Minnesota to increase its minimum standard for renewable energy. As it stands, at least 15 percent of the energy sold in the state must come from renewable resources. The Minnesota Clean Energy and Jobs Campaign wants to raise that level to 40 percent by 2030.

"Energy efficiency creates jobs that people can live on," said Justin Fay, the manager of the coalition campaign. "Construction jobs doing home or business retrofits and designing and manufacturing the components needed to make our buildings more energy efficient all will create good jobs for workers."

Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican, signed the 15-percent standard into law in 2007. It since has become a target for a number of Republicans who call it an unneeded burden on energy production. Coalition members say they will attempt to build bipartisan support between the DFL-led Senate and the GOP-controlled House.