Think tank says state is failing rural areas

excerpted from Becker County Record, 8-1-07

Minnesota 2020, a new think tank, issued a report that says the state is failing rural Minnesota by not aggressively assisting its small and emerging businesses, focusing too much attention chasing large manufacturing plants, and offering ineffectual tax subsidies.

the report suggested the state focus on four key areas in small business assistance: research and training; development and marketing; capital formation; and microenterprise loan funds.

Read full report.

Should Minnesota invest in our small towns or return rural Minnesota to the buffalo?

excerpted from op/ed piece in the Hoffman Tribune by Matt Entenza and Lee Enerstrom, Minnesota 2020

In many parts of Minnesota our small towns are withering and the state of Minnesota is doing little or nothing to reverse that trend. Current rural economic development policy is focused on the wrong priority: moving jobs from deep rural counties to exurban Twin Cities areas. Minnesota faces a stark, fundamental policy choice: investment or abandonment.

Read the Minnesota 2020 think tank's study on this issue.