Minnesota economic officials expect applications to be available for the state’s angel investor tax credit before the Aug. 1 deadline set by the Legislature. Dan McElroy, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, told an audience Monday that his department hopes to have documents related to the tax credit posted on its [...]
I’m attending the launch event this afternoon for a group called MOJO Minnesota, an “innovation advocacy force” that wants to “reignite Minnesota’s culture of innovation.” I met with co-founder Ernest Grumbles a few weeks ago, and he explained they’re not going to be about putting out more studies and white papers. They’re going to be [...]
Twin Cities telecommuters have a new option for getting out of the house, and it doesn’t require buying a cup of coffee. A pair of “co-working” centers opened this week in St. Paul, one in downtown and another in the St. Anthony Park neighborhood. The centers are independent of each other, but both were inspired [...]
The budget forecast delivered by state finance officials on Wednesday is perhaps the bleakest outlook in Minnesota’s history. “This is the worst, without a question,” said Jay Kiedrowski, a senior fellow at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. As the state’s chief financial officer under Gov. Rudy Perpich in the 1980s, Kiedrowski [...]
He did it before. Will he do it again? A year ago this week, state finance officials broke the news to lawmakers about a projected $426 million budget deficit facing the state. The report set the table for a round of controversial budget cuts by Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who used a once-obscure administrative power called [...]
A panel of Republican candidates for governor on Wednesday painted a dire portrait of a state in fiscal crisis. Speaking at a private forum for Medtronic employees, the five GOP contenders described a state budget broken from unsustainable spending. And they spoke about an alarming migration trend they see in which businesses are fleeing the [...]
Minnesota’s economy—and identity—have been linked for decades to the strength of its life science community, from groundbreaking research at the University of Minnesota to global Fortune 500 companies like Medtronic and General Mills. But the state is losing its competitive edge, and staying above average is going to require targeted planning and investment in key [...]
As biologists prepare to celebrate the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin next month, doubters of his theories may want to head on down to their local shopping mall. “It’s retail Darwinism,” says Dave Brennan, a marketing professor and co-director of the University of St. Thomas’ Institute for Retailing Excellence. Major layoff and job cut announcements [...]
