What would a pro-growth agenda look like for Minnesota?

For years, when business leaders warned that Minnesota’s economy was falling behind, defenders of the status quo waved away the data. They pointed to a common set of refrains: We have lots of Fortune 500 companies here, an educated and productive workforce and a good quality of life.

That debate is now over. From 2019 through 2025, Minnesota’s GDP per capita grew just 1% annually, ranking 38th nationally. Our labor-force growth is hardly any better, ranking 33rd in the nation. Over the past decade, Minnesota’s economy grew at 1.6% per year compared with 2.4% nationally.

These numbers demonstrate that Minnesota is losing ground to other states. We are not an economic wasteland, but we need change. The next governor must make economic growth the organizing principle of state government.

She should start by eliminating state income taxes on the first $50,000 earned by every Minnesotan. That would deliver thousands of dollars to working families, reward work and encourage young people to build their lives here.

The tax burdens on businesses should be reduced, too, but that relief should be focused on something Minnesotans can see: hiring. Create a simple payroll-tax credit for every net new job created in Minnesota. Help employers that hire Minnesotans.

It’s fair to ask how tax relief will be paid for, but the historic fraud epidemic has answered that question. Waste, fraud and abuse honeycomb state government. Rooting that out would more than pay for substantial tax relief.

Next we need broad regulatory reform, starting with addressing the increasing difficulty of building large projects in the state. Research from the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, which has been a leader in advocating for permitting reform, found that the time to issue key permits for major projects averaged well over a year. That is simply not sustainable when businesses can readily go to other states for projects and get approvals in a couple months. We need reform to impose firm deadlines for decisionmaking, agency reviews across state government that happen simultaneously, and automatic escalation when the state misses any deadlines.

Paid-family-leave reform belongs in the same agenda. The current one-size-fits-all state mandate financed by a tax on every paycheck is among the most poorly constructed programs in the country. There is not a day that goes by when I don’t talk to a business leader about their frustrations with the costs and burdens of the program. We should replace Minnesota’s system with a voluntary private-insurance framework allowing employers to offer regulated coverage as an employee benefit. We need to get away from making state government the human resources department for every Minnesota business.

A serious economic-growth plan also requires welfare reform. Minnesota’s fraud epidemic demonstrated historic incompetence and the active suppression of whistleblowers on the part of the Walz administration. But it also exposed the immense size of our welfare systems and their myopic focus on distributing money rather than demanding results. Able-bodied adults receiving assistance should be expected to work, with benefits being phased out gradually so a raise does not trigger a benefits cliff. Moving able-bodied people into work would help the economy and restore purpose and upward mobility. We need to make our welfare system a safety net and not a sofa.

And no Minnesota growth plan can write off Minneapolis, as some conservatives are inclined to do. A healthy Minnesota requires a healthy Minneapolis. It is our economic center, an important entry point to the state for people from around the world, and home to institutions that benefit the entire state.

Just as important is what this agenda does not include. It does not include a wealth tax, even higher income taxes or other DSA-inspired economic redistribution. It does not include a grab bag of “investments” in assorted well-connected nonprofits. And it certainly doesn’t include better marketing or more happy talk about succeeding without fundamental change.