I'm falling behind a little, so today we have a speed blogging date.
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On the way home from Drinking Liberally, I passed this store window on West Broadway, where Friedman's has managed to hang in there for 100 years as a legitimate clothing retailer, despite the avenue's reputation for crime and decay. (Indeed half a mile further, police cars blocked off the street, although their work appeared to involve a tow truck rather than an ambulance.)
Earlier that day, Edina cops busted a storefront drug dealing operation in more refined precincts — Southdale Shopping Center. Some seemed surprised ("It's a mall!") that drug dealers would locate in a retail palace. But try any of these places on a weekday afternoon and watch the glazed drifters move from store to store and one pile of merchandise to another. If these were alleys and dumpsters, instead of aisles and cosmetics counters, you'd know what to call the customers.
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Speaking of crime — not on the streets — two Minnesotans got hauled into court by the Recording Industry of America (RIAA) as part of the record industry's battle against illegally distributing copyrighted music on the Internet. The RIAA's legal strategy seems aimed at intimidating average consumers who use file-sharing services like LimeWire to download free music. [For the record, I support copyright, but I also acknowledge that "information wants to be free."]
Seeing these cases, you're supposed to think, "Wow, if they're going to sue Jerry Bowman of Deerwood, Minnesota, they could come after me."
And if that isn't scary enough, they'll expose to the world your musical tastes. Two of the songs that got Bowman in trouble were "Running From an Angel" by Hootie & the Blowfish and "Black or White" by Michael Jackson.
Damn. That's sort of like finding yourself in the emergency room wearing Flintstones underwear.
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We now segue to more serious matters: Tax breaks for corporations.
As Strib columnist Neal St. Anthony points out — writing about a $15 million tax-relief package for Thomson West — deals that reduce taxes or use public money to pave the way for corporate expansions can result in increased jobs that pay more taxes. Of course, you could also say that paying a ransom will result in your kidnapped son coming home with all his fingers. That doesn't make it a good policy.
Offering public subsidies to selected businesses is a method of economic development favored by Gov. Pawlenty. For example, his JOBZ program provides state and local tax exemptions to businesses that locate or expand in Greater Minnesota. It's also a way to make some businesses winners and other losers; some industries are favored while others are on their own.
Thomson, a Canadian information-publishing conglomerate that purchased St. Paul-based West Law Publishing some years ago, is a good citizen and employs a lot of Minnesotans already. It has plenty of good reasons to expand its operations here.
But it would also be stupid as a business not to take advantage of state and local officials' desire to keep Thomson here. What gives Thomson (or Target, Northwest Airlines or the Minnesota Twins) leverage to extract concessions is the credible threat to move elsewhere — to a city or state that offers them a better deal. That sort of clout is simply not available to retailers like Friedman's or to businesses that may not be mobile for other reasons.
[Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank economist Art] Rolnick said the only way to stop bidding wars among states and localities is for Congress to pass a law that declared any company that got such special treatment as out of compliance with the interstate-commerce laws, which preclude state and local meddling, and tax the benefits at a 100 percent rate.
That way, the thinking goes, states and localities would try to keep a competitive business climate for everybody and forget about subsidies.
We'll never erase the inherent advantages capital has over labor or big players have over the little guys, but Rolnick's proposed change to the law might lead states to compete on the basis of attributes that benefited everyone — instead of who was best at playing chicken with public money.
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