Conversation with a carpenter, potential governor

By Free Press Editor Joe Spear

Sen. Tom Bakk has a powerful position in state government as chairman of the Senate Tax Committee, but he often refers to himself as a carpenter, and he says, "carpenters know how to solve problems."

He has been traveling outstate Minnesota, though he is from the Iron Range, because, he says, he'll need to win the governor's race in rural Minnesota, the 1st and 7th congressional districts. He stopped at The Free Press Monday to talk with myself and political reporter Mark Fischenich.

When his office requested a meeting, I asked that the topic be focused on bipartisan solutions to Minnesota's problems. The senator certainly obliged us.

He thinks a Democratic governor from rural Minnesota has a better chance than one from the Twin Cities. I tend to agree. But he doesn't really talk political strategy all that much, except when it matters to getting things done. Last year, when the DFL and Gov. Tim Pawlenty were at odds over the state budget, Bakk was trying to talk to the governor, trying to give him some of what he wanted, while the DFL could get something they wanted.

Bakk proposed a tax credit for angel investors that would have offset proposed tax increases on high-income earners, thus giving Pawlenty a "no tax victory" by making the deal revenue neutral.

He's practical about such things, noting that when one side feels like it got run over, it will hold grudges, and it will take longer to mend those fences, take longer to get things done. Hence, the need to get the governor some of what he wants.

Bakk describes himself as a centrist, and quite frankly, he's the most centrist candidate I've seen of either party in a while. He has championed tax credits for small businesses, angel investor tax credits that he says may give employers an incentive to add jobs, a hallmark of his campaign. A tax credit may provide the small business the equity it needs in a project to get the bank to issue a loan, something Bakk says is still not happening all that much.

He had proposed last year giving businesses their sales tax exemptions up front, instead of making them pay and fill out a lot of forms for a refund. He says 40 percent of small businesses never apply for the refund because it's too much hassle. He still favors the idea, and it would go a long way to helping a lot of small business invest in capital equipment like computers and machinery.

He said the switchover of the way the state pays this would have cost the state $75 million, one-time money, but the proposal did not win support last year. This year, of course, the state has no money.

He's also realistic about the state budget situation. He says the state can neither tax, nor cut its way out of a potential $5.4 billion deficit, coming due in 2013. That's why he puts the emphasis on jobs, so as to hopefully get the tax revenue flowing again.

He has a few ideas that have merit on the budget fix, and you can tell he's thought through the political implications. At some point, he'll be offering those to both parties and the general public, but they are ideas, in my mind, that would be tough for both sides of the aisle to turn down.

Not bad for a carpenter.