ABC = A Broken City

New York is known as the city that does not sleep. Chicago is known as the windy city. Detroit was known as the motor city. Minneapolis is quickly becoming known as the broken city. The once proud Mill City, the City of Lakes, does not work that well anymore. And it is a toss up between Hennepin County and the Minneapolis City Council on who has mucked it up the most.

Guess what? Companies are not lining up to move into Minneapolis. In anything, more and more companies are moving operations out of the downtown area. Driving around the beltway, you can see many companies which once were housed in Minneapolis. One might ask, then why keep proposing LRT lines that terminate in downtown Minneapolis? Search me. Maybe the Met Council thinks this will draw companies back into town. I say "fat chance". The county tax is high and the city tax is high. Living or doing business in Minneapolis has become a very expensive prospect.

What are the city leaders doing to make investing in this city more lucrative for employers? Mandating a sick leave policy. You know, like Seattle has. On the news last night, this issue came up. How did businesses in Seattle fare once this mandate was in place? Twenty percent reported they had reduced profitability. Some had to raise prices. Some had to reduce raises. Some had to lay off employees. One percent said they had to close up shop.

Truthfully when I was younger, I worked at some places which did not offer paid sick leave. If you were sick, you stayed home and you did not get paid. Those were called entry level jobs. Minimum wage (or close to it) jobs. If you wanted a job that paid more and had benefits such as paid sick leave, you needed to get a skill or a degree. Simple as that. 

Minneapolis is going to keep tinkering with things until the city is fully broken. Crime is up, policing is down, taxes are up, professional opportunities are down. It seems the only industry which is doing well right now in Minneapolis is government. And trust me, there is a whole bunch of government in that town.

Minneapolis is a high tax city existing within a high tax state residing in a country which has the highest business taxes in the world. Is there any wonder why companies such as Medtronic chose to choose the inversion route with Covidien?