A prominent Minnesota Republican is lashing out at Gov. Tim Walz for destroying the state’s economy.
Walz, who was recently chosen as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, made repeated blunders as governor as he tried to rebuild the state’s economy after the COVID pandemic, the House Republican leader charged.
The North Star State has one of the highest tax rates in the country and Walz has raised it even higher, putting the “state on the path to economic disaster,” Minnesota Republican Tom Emmer told DailyMail.com exclusively.
“Tim Walz doesn’t have a budget bone in his body. He doesn’t understand how to run a business. He’s a schoolteacher, which is fine, but he’s never run anything in his life, and it shows when he becomes CEO of the state of Minnesota.”
“This is just Gavin Newsom in a flannel shirt,” Emmer joked about Walz’s resemblance to the liberal California governor.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has liquidated the state’s budget surplus while raising taxes for residents, Republican House Chairman Tom Emmer told DailyMail.com. His leadership has put the “state on course for economic disaster,” Emmer said.
“Last year alone, he created a $17.5 billion surplus and added $8 billion in new taxes and fees on the backs of hardworking Minnesotans.”
“Minnesota has one of the worst corporate tax climates in the country,” Emmer added. “We’re now ranked 44 out of 50 states, and we have people who are, frankly, leaving the state in droves because of its high-tax policies.”
Bucket appeared to be referring to an analysis of the Tax Foundation which found Minnesota to be among the worst states in the country when it comes to corporate income taxes.
Taxes and budgets aside, federal economic data doesn’t paint an entirely rosy picture of the northern state’s economy.
Data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis shows that Minnesota is lagging the rest of the country in growth under Walz’s leadership.
Since he took office, Minnesota’s economy has grown just 6.2 percent, compared to the U.S. average of 11.5 percent. That means the state’s economy has grown about half as fast as the rest of the U.S.
House Republican Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., told DailyMail.com that Gov. Tim Walz is hurting the state’s economy and that his economic agenda for Minnesota, if applied to the country, would hinder the U.S.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz provides an update on the state’s next steps to respond to COVID-19 during a press conference on Wednesday, April 8, 2020. Emmer said Walz’s leadership during the pandemic
Under Walz’s leadership, Minnesota has also delivered much lower job growth compared to the national average.
From January 2019 to June 2024, the U.S. saw a 5.8 percent increase in employment growth, compared to Minnesota, where employment grew just 0.5 percent over the same period.
Yet the economy under Walz was not all bad.
A good indicator for Walz is the state’s unemployment rate, which is consistently lower than the national average.
In June 2024, Minnesota’s unemployment rate was about 30 percent lower than the national level, hovering around 2.9 percent, compared to the U.S. average of 4.1 percent.
In addition, inflation in the state was lower than in the rest of the country, data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis shows.
The state’s inflation rate currently stands at 2.6 percent, compared to the U.S. average of 3.3 percent.