Rauner gets his facts wrong on Minnesota
Wednesday, Sep 26, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Gov. Rauner was asked about Minnesota during his Crain’s Chicago Business interview. The state has a progressive tax structure with a high top rate and plenty of state regulations, but it’s attracting businesses at a fast clip and has a 2.9 percent unemployment rate…
“So, Minnesota,” Rauner said, “I’m sorry, they’re not doing all that well and they are not dependent, they are not dependent upon manufacturing anywhere near to the degree that we are. Manufacturing is our lifeblood in so many ways, and we are getting crushed. Minnesota is never dependent upon manufacturing like we have.”
According to the National Association of Manufacturers, manufacturing in Minnesota accounted for 14.4 percent of its gross state product and nearly 11 percent of its nonfarm employment, based on 2016 statistics.
By comparison, manufacturing in Illinois accounted for 12.7 percent of its gross state product and 9.5 percent of the state’s nonfarm employment.
Maplewood, Minn., a suburb of Minneapolis-St. Paul, is also the headquarters of 3M Co. The firm’s name came from its founding more than a century ago as Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co.
Oops.
* Also, this…
- 33rd Ward - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 10:12 am:
November can’t come soon enough.
- Real - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 10:14 am:
Rauner knows Minnesota is doing well. It’s just that his agenda for Illinois is not in the best interest of the people so he lies and certain republicans who aren’t educated believe him.
- Pundent - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 10:16 am:
No surprise in any of this. If the facts don’t fit Rauner’s narrative he makes them up.
Given the non-stop ads that JB is running regarding Rauner’s failure and lying you would think he’d be trying to show a bit more “incremental progress” when it comes to being accurate.
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 10:17 am:
Bruce Rauner isn’t at all great at facts.
What’s comically sad is candidate Rauner complained about then Governor Quinn and comparing Illinois to all these states doing all these things better… and Rauner, who trashes Illinois every chance he gets… he has to trash Minnesota, but here’s the rub, Minnesota is measurably better off than Illinois.
Crain’s knows… by nearly every measure Illinois is worse since Rauner became governor.
So…
Rauner trashes Illinois, but nedds to trash Minnesota… for succeeding.
Whah?
- illini - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 10:17 am:
Tell me, has our Governor ever let the facts get in the way of what he perceives to be a convincing argument?
- Henry Francis - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 10:18 am:
The poor guy is just so arrogant and ignorant.
And he has so little respect to whomever he is speaking to.
He’ll still have his hundreds of millions, but will he have any social standing after all this?
- Lt Guv - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 10:20 am:
Rauner can’t keep his facts straight about Illinois. How could we possibly be shocked he’d get confused about strange places like Minnesota & Colorado? Italy on the other hand. . .
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 10:21 am:
===…but will he have any social standing after all this?===
Diana Rauner, brand defender, will call Bruce and Diana’s purposeful destruction of Illinois a business decision… while possibly “traveling the world” until people forget.
Maybe “Italy”is an admission. The brand is tarnished.
- Ole' Nelson - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 10:22 am:
Gets his facts wrong is a generous way to put it.
My mom had another word for it and it often required the insertion of a bar of ivory soap into my mouth.
The Governor has a proven track record of saying anything required to appear correct in the moment.
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 10:25 am:
Rauner did ask the Crain’s Editorial Board to focus… so there’s that, I guess.
- Anon221 - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 10:26 am:
Top Ten Rauner Countdown…
Look into my eyes, can’t you see they’re open wide?
Would I lie to you, baby, would I lie to you? (Oh, yeah)
- Real - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 10:27 am:
Rauner trashes Minnesota because it is succeeding without any of the snake oil reforms Rauner is selling
- slow down - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 10:30 am:
Ideology first, facts second I guess.
- wordslinger - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 10:30 am:
Whoops, someone didn’t do their homework so good, again.
In reality, Rauner doesn’t “get facts wrong.” He just makes up nonsense and lies, all the time, about matters large and small. For a long time, it’s been clear that lying is as natural as breathing to him.
That’s been a clear fact since before he was elected and has been confirmed time and again by people across the political spectrum who’ve dealt with him.
- Joe Bidenopolous - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 10:30 am:
People don’t think about it this way, but Minnesota has a really robust business community too. In a state of 5.5 million, they have 17 Fortune 500 companies, which is roughly equal on a per capita basis to Illinois, which has a population of 12.8 million and 36 Fortune 500 companies. And yet, I’m sure when people think midwest and business, they think Chicago much more than they think Minneapolis.
- Grandson of Man - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 10:30 am:
Rauner has caused so much damage in his quest to make us a low-income state. Minnesota is great proof that we don’t need to follow the Republican state model and strip union rights.
Minnesota is also an example that a billionaire Democratic governor enacts liberal policies—for all who are so hung up on and critical of billionaires for the sake of their wealth.
- Cubs in '16 - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 10:31 am:
He should’ve just said “Minnesota doesn’t have Madigan” and called it a day.
- Deadbeat Conservative - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 10:31 am:
==Rauner trashes Minnesota because it is succeeding without any of the snake oil reforms Rauner is selling==
Agreed. At least Rauner’s in step with the rest of the GOP on this one.
- zatoichi - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 10:34 am:
If I say it enough then you can trust me that it is true. That’s all you really need to know. If we are working together, there is no need to fact check.
- jdcolombo - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 10:34 am:
If Rauner’s agenda (also that of IPI and its ilk and donors across the country) were truly successful, Mississippi would be one of the wealthiest states. It isn’t. But I don’t know why Rauner, et. al. don’t move there, because it has everything he wants.
States that have excellent social services, terrific public education, and taxes high enough to pay for it all can’t be successful. So Minnesota cannot exist. Neither can New York, California, etc.
- Name Withheld - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 10:38 am:
Could the press please adopt the Trump rule used at the UN when a leader says something so patently absurd that it warrants laughing at them? Laughing everything the Governor says something so ridiculous that it defied credulity would go a long way. It would at least make televised press conferences more entertaining.
- Precinct Captain - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 10:40 am:
Our large, adult governor made another mental boo boo.
- anon - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 10:44 am:
i hear that sometimes rauner just lies.
- Honeybear - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 10:46 am:
City Zen- another excellent example of
Perfidy
Willful deception or treachery
- A Jack - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 10:54 am:
Yes Minnesota under Governor Mark Dayton, a wealthy Democrat, has done quite well. Minnesota has a worse climate than Illinois, mosquitoes and humidity in the summer, and frigid winters. And Minnesota has that progressive income tax.
Had Rauner spent his first year as Governor studying the success of Minnesota, we would all be better off.
Rauner just does not have what it takes to advance Illinois.
- BobO - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 10:56 am:
In the most recent “Case for Inclusion” report from the United Cerebral Palsy, Minnesota ranks 12th vs Illinois’ 47th.
Minnesota has no large state institutions housing individuals with intellectual/developmental disabilities vs Illinois’ seven institutions.
The University of Colorado’s Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities ranks Illinois at 47th worse in Fiscal Effort spending on intellectual/developmental disability services. Minnesota comes in at 8th best.
Illinois human service providers would take Minnesota’s taxing and economic structure in a heartbeat.
- Ole' Nelson - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 10:56 am:
Had Rauner spent his first year as Governor studying the success of Minnesota.
It is hard to learn anything when you think you know it all. Bruce didn’t buy the office to fix Illinois. He is an ideologue that hates unions. He is out to break them so he and others like him can profit off of cheap labor and low taxes.
- Techie - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 10:57 am:
It’s almost like a progressive tax benefits the state of Minnesota and would do so here, too.
Pritzker would be wise to cite Mark Dayton, the current governor of Minnesota, as an example of a wealthy Democrat who nevertheless did things which helped the state economically, as well as the average citizen of the state. Dayton is proof that just because you’re wealthy and not necessarily totally “in touch” with the average person doesn’t mean you can’t enact reforms to help them.
- Annonin' - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 10:57 am:
Opps? Hardly
THis is another stunnin’ reminder that GovJunk sets aside zero time to prepare because he does not care.
Just rerun his spiel and the facts every day as the theme song for the Exit Interview Tour
- City Zen - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 11:14 am:
I’m sold on Minnesota. Let’s start taxing retirement income, spend about $1,800 less per pupil on lower education, convert the teachers pension system to a social security hybrid and reduce their service years calculation, cut property taxes by over 50%. That’s a good start. And once we’re done, then we can adopt their uber-successful progressive tax rates.
I am all-in on the gopher state. Where do I sign?
- Actual Red - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 11:19 am:
The crazy thing, as others have pointed out, is that we don’t have to guess what the difference between a Raunerite anti-labor, anti-social services, regressively taxed Illinois and a progressively taxed, pro-labor, social service funding Illinois would look like.
Would you rather be Minnesota or Kansas/ Oklahoma/Mississippi?
- City Zen - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 11:20 am:
==@usnews rated Minnesota *second* in their annual “Best States” report==
Second place might be a bit of an over-reach for us. How about 3rd, like flat tax Utah? Or 4th through 6th like no state income tax states ND, NH, and WA? How about 8th like flat tax MA? Or 10th like flat tax CO?
- VanillaMan - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 11:29 am:
Rauner gets his facts wrong.
The only thing that has been consistent in Illinois since 2015.
- Ole' Nelson - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 11:38 am:
City Zen actually has some ideas I could support.
Let’s start taxing retirement income. (Agreed as long as it is above social security level and across the board)
convert the teachers pension system to a social security hybrid and reduce their service years calculation (too late on this one. Illinois had the chance to pay teachers social security many years ago, but chose to take care of it in state. Illinois has promised benefits and needs to pay up.)
cut property taxes by over 50% (Lets do this once the pension debt and bill backlog are paid off. Should be easy to cut property taxes once the State has money freed up to pay for the majority of K-12 education)
City Zen and I will likely be long gone once Illinois accomplished all of this, but what a plan.
- Ole' Nelson - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 11:44 am:
Forgot about this one, City Zen
spend about $1,800 less per pupil on lower education
Since your hero, Bruce Rauner fought so hard for the recent K-12 spending increase (along with City of Chicago bailout), we should let it stand as his legacy in Illinois. Okay with you?
- Generic Drone - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 11:58 am:
Too bad we can’t trade Governors like baseball trades players. Course we would have to pay Minnesota to take Rauner.
- Rabid - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 12:14 pm:
Minnesota strengthens its economy with prevailing wage. Illinois is a no tax state for Retirees, so we’re half way there
- JS Mill - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 12:14 pm:
The Whopper King is at it again.
CZ- LOL.
- Steve Rogers - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 12:33 pm:
@Generic Drone: I like it. Trade governor for governor, and we’ll even throw in a player to be named later. Anyone named Walsh would do.
- Rod - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 12:34 pm:
Clearly Governor Rauner did not have his facts near correct on Minnesota. I suspect he read something critical about the economic performance of Minnesota in one or another conservative publication but had no real recollection of what the critique was. So he just made something up on the spot.
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 12:35 pm:
===Anyone named Walsh would do===
Larry might object to that.
- nearspringfield - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 12:42 pm:
I think Governor Rauner would probably be best served spending the rest of the campaign helping OJ find the real killers. It could not be anymore embarrassing.
- Lt Guv - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 12:43 pm:
How about throwing Jerry Long into the trade as the player to be named later?
- City Zen - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 12:45 pm:
==City Zen actually has some ideas I could support.==
They are not my ideas. They are Minnesota’s.
==spend about $1,800 less per pupil on lower education==
With 2 million students in Illinois, that’s $3.6B extra that Illinois and its local governments would have to spend on other things. Even if only 1/3 was the state’s portion, that’s $1.2B that could go to higher ed, social services, or pension debt.
It’s the whole package that makes Minnesota so magical. No dipping toes in the cold waters. Let’s dive in.
- City Zen - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 12:47 pm:
==The Whopper King is at it again.==
In a world of chicken fries, it’s important to have the meats.
- Ole' Nelson - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 12:57 pm:
Let’s dive in.
Sorry City Zen, that seems to be operating in the extreme. I am more moderate, like our big-brained Governor. /s
It looks like our moment of agreement was short lived.
- Reality Check - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 1:00 pm:
If you really want to get jealous, check out Tim Walz an Army vet, high school teacher, football coach and Democratic congressman from a rural district who’s about to become Minnesota’s next governor. Coupled with the young, Native American, kids advocate, state legislator Peggy Flanagan who is his running mate … wow, what a ticket.
- btowntruth from forgottonia - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 2:24 pm:
It is like he can’t stop lying.
- Ole' Nelson - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 2:46 pm:
https://youtu.be/rN97tqSwI44
Rauner must have missed this song as a kid. Spooky, but effective.
- Steve Rogers - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 2:49 pm:
Touche Rich. I was thinking of a certain Tea Party couple but I do like the idea of throwing in Jerry Long too. Heck, we could probably easily give up a dozen pols in return for one MN governor.
- Huh? - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 3:59 pm:
“It is like he can’t stop lying.”
Why let the truth get in the way of a lie? Particularly if the lie pushes your narrative.
- City Zen - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 4:34 pm:
==Sorry City Zen, that seems to be operating in the extreme. I am more moderate==
I can be moderate too. No dive. Let’s dip our toes in Lake Minnetonka instead. So which one aspect of Minnesota should we adopt first, the property tax reduction or the taxation of retirement income?
- Archpundit - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 5:30 pm:
—And once we’re done, then we can adopt their uber-successful progressive tax rates.
You do realize the reason this all works is because of the progressive income tax, right?
One thing to consider on lower per pupil spending is that the poverty rate is lower in Minnesota.
- Ole' Nelson - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 5:41 pm:
So which one aspect of Minnesota should we adopt first, the property tax reduction or the taxation of retirement income?
Neither, the progressive income tax goes first.
- Yossarian - Wednesday, Sep 26, 18 @ 7:15 pm:
January can’t come soon enough.