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Why Minnesota? Why Chisago County? |
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Minnesota has a diverse
economy with the resources |
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Minnesota’s business
community is strong, diverse, and has State and local governments in Minnesota have made significant strides to reduce business taxes over recent years, with approximately $1 billion in annual savings to businesses. Minnesota has changed the playing field in offering businesses a competitive cost environment. Hard-working and educated workers provide Minnesota businesses with a valuable competitive advantage. State and local partners are willing to work with businesses to make expansion successful and provide substantial financial resources.
Minnesota is home to successful and fast growing companies • The competitiveness and entrepreneurialism of Minnesota’s business vitality on the Center for Enterprise Development's 2002 Development Report Card for the States. Overall, Minnesota was one of five states to earn straight A’s vitality, development capacity and performance. Wisconsin received a "C" for business vitality and a "B" for development capacity. • Businesses in Chisago County benefit from the advantages insofar as suppliers, distributors and services in the Twin Cities are only minutes away. In addition, Chisago County itself has businesses that can provide the services your company might need. There are 21 computer systems design and related services firms, 18 scientific and technical consulting services firms, as well has 11 engineering and R&D services firms. • The number of businesses in Chisago County is rapidly growing. The county had the second fastest business start-up rate in Minnesota in 2001. Minnesota companies are internationally recognized • Minnesota’s Fortune 500 companies and nine Forbes 500 private companies represent a variety of industries such as health care, banking, agriculture and food processing, retailing, business services and industrial products. These companies – most headquartered in the Twin Cities region – help maintain a strong attraction for workforce and for services that companies can use to grow in Chisago County.
Because of Minnesota’s corporate income tax liability
• Minnesota has a flat corporate income tax rate of 9.8 percent. Wisconsin has a rate of 7.9 percent. Minnesota's apportionment formula is particularly advantageous for companies with significant sales outside the state. Minnesota's formula is much more favorable than Wisconsin's formula. • Minnesota's research and development (R&D) tax credit also makes the state an attractive place for manufacturers.
Because Minnesota, in contrast with
Wisconsin, does not tax
• Minnesota location could save a business approximately $88,000 in personal property tax on furniture, fixtures and equipment worth $5 million. Minnesota exempts personal property like machinery, inventory and intangibles from the property tax, resulting in a lower effective tax rate for real and personal property. Overall, businesses whose equipment value is high, relative to their real estate value, will likely have lower property taxes in Minnesota than in Wisconsin. • Chisago County will be happy to assign a value for the property tax on real property given blueprints containing details on square footage and the allocation of work space. • The Minnesota Legislature enacted major property tax reform during the 2001 legislative session, reducing business property taxes 10 percent. This is in addition to reductions passed in the late 1990s, resulting in a reduction of 30 to 40 percent between 1997 and 2002.
Minnesota has worked hard to make its compensation system
more competitive with
• Employers generally arrange workers' compensation coverage with private insurers at a market rate. Minnesota's insurance industry is very competitive, allowing for substantially reduced market-rate premiums. • Minnesota has worked hard to reduce workers' compensation total system costs. According to the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, total system costs have fallen 45 percent from the early 1990s (an average of $2.51 between 1989 and 1994) to $1.37 in 2000. As a result, workers' compensations costs in Minnesota have fallen relative to Wisconsin. • Companies meeting certain criteria (such as financial position and loss history) are eligible for Workers’ Compensation Self-Insurance (generally at substantially reduced cost) through the Minnesota Department of Commerce. In 2001, nearly 1,200 companies, participated in the Self-Insurance Program.
Because of Wisconsin’s local sales tax and
wider tax base,
• Minnesota's state sales and use tax is 6.5 percent. Wisconsin has a lower state sales tax rates than Minnesota, although Polk County has a local sales tax. Chisago County does not have a local sales tax, reducing the difference in rates between the two locations. • Minnesota exempts capital equipment used in the manufacturing process from the sales tax. Minnesota also has several other major exemptions for businesses, including utilities and most services, including fees for equipment installation and repair.
Unemployment insurance costs, on average,
• An employer at the average rate in Minnesota and Wisconsin will pay more per employee in Wisconsin. A Minnesota location will likely be advantageous, in terms of unemployment insurance costs. • Unemployment insurance collections in Minnesota declined from $452 million in 1994 to $373 million in 2002, a savings of $79 million to businesses.
Businesses benefit from Minnesota's productive labor force. • Minnesota’s labor force participation rate of 76.1 percent was the highest in the nation in 2001, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. • Minnesota’s workers are safe. The state's nonfatal work injury and illness incidence rate in private industry was 6.3 percent in 2001, lower than Wisconsin. • Minnesota’s workers are reliable. In 2001, Minnesota's absenteeism rate of 1.96 percent was lower than the Wisconsin average of 2.10 percent. Employment conditions in the Chisago
County area • Chisago County ranked in the top third of Minnesota counties in 2001 for the number of jobs created due to new and expanding businesses. • Businesses can count on a rapidly growing workforce with a Chisago County location. The population of Chisago County is expected to increase 26% between 2000 and 2010, and 69% by 2030.
Chisago County is easily accessible to
the
• Due to great transportation access, residents of Chisago County enjoy both the atmosphere of a smaller community and the resources of a metropolitan area. • Chisago County is easily accessible to the highly skilled and educated workforce in the Twin Cities area. • Minneapolis-St. Paul has been designated the world's most knowledge competitive region by a United Kingdom consulting firm. The area ranked higher than San Francisco and indicates that the Twin Cities has the most balanced knowledge-based economy for sustaining growth.
Minnesota offers a wide range of advantages for working families. • Minnesota is the best state in the country in which to raise children according to the Kids Count 2002 Report. Rankings considered percent of children in poverty and dropout rates, among other measures. • Minnesota has been named "The Most Livable State" in the country by Morgan Quitno Press for a record seven years in a row. • Since 1997, Minnesota has been among the five healthiest states in the country according to Morgan Quitno Press. • In 2002 for the third year in a row, Minnesota ranked first in the "State Caring" Index by United Way of America. The index considers 32 social and economic indicators including clean air and low unemployment. • Chisago County affords great home ownership options for businesses' workforce. Over 65 percent of homes have a value of $150,000 or less, ensuring affordable housing choices. At the same time, 14 percent of homes are valued in excess of $200,000, indicative of homes sought by higher paid managerial and professional employees. • Strong new home construction continues in the Chisago County. In the past year, 150 residential building permits were issued in North Branch, while almost 500 will be issued this year in Forest Lake. • The K-12 educational system in the region offers superior academic opportunities. The percentage of students who passed the Minnesota Basic Skills Tests in reading and math exceeded the state average in all three of the school districts in the area - North Branch, Chisago Lakes, and Forest Lake.
Businesses will continue to be well-served
by • Data from the U.S. Bureau of the Census revealed that in 2000, Minnesota had the 7th highest percentage of population with a bachelor’s degree or higher, while Wisconsin was ranked 37th. Minnesota also had the 3rd highest percent of the population graduated from high school, while Wisconsin was ranked 17th.
Locations of Minnesota's State College & University Campuses
Minnesota offers multiple training opportunities. The State of Minnesota, through its Department of Employment & Economic Development (DEED) and multiple post-secondary educational institutions, offers training programs that can assist businesses. Job Skills Partnership Program Training new and existing employees is clearly a key component to the success of establishing a business in Chisago County. The State of Minnesota, through its Job Skills Partnership Program (MJSP), will aggressively work with businesses to identify training needs and offer customized training in collaboration with area colleges to meet training needs. The following colleges offer engineering & technical degrees in the area: • Anoka-Ramsey Community College, Cambridge Campus has been a leading provider of higher education and training in the north suburban area of Minneapolis/St. Paul since 1965. Annually, the college serves over 8,000 learners of all ages. The college also focuses on providing professional development and continuing education programs for working adults. Over 7,000 students enroll in these courses each year. The College has kept abreast of changes in technology with updated computer labs and courses designed to help prepare our students for new fields. Partnering with employers has brought the college to work locations to provide customized training and help develop programs to meet the needs of employers. Recently, Anoka-Ramsey has started to make classes even more convenient by bringing classes right to students' homes through the Internet. • Pine Technical College, in Pine City, has just opened the country's first Virtual Reality Training Center. Pine Tech is a dynamic, modern, aggressive and advanced college for the 21st Century. It is small and friendly, but offers technology programs unique to Minnesota and the nation. The campus is more "wired" and electronic than most universities and features high technology and traditional trades. • University of Minnesota has four campuses, is one of the most comprehensive universities in the United States and ranks among the most prestigious. It is both the state land-grant university, with a strong tradition of education and public service, and a major research institution, with scholars of national and international reputation. More than 15 University programs rank among the top 10 nationally. In 2001, the University's Twin Cities campus was ranked among the top three public research universities in the nation. The University of Minnesota serves more than 60,000 students throughout the state and offers degrees in more than 370 fields of study. With the most comprehensive academic programs of any institution in Minnesota, as well as the widest range of graduate and professional programs, the University offers unlimited academic and experiential opportunities for students and faculty alike. The Graduate Program in Industrial Engineering at the University of Minnesota resides within the Department of Mechanical Engineering. The program draws upon specialized knowledge and skills in the mathematical, physical, and social sciences along with methods of engineering analysis to specify, predict, and evaluate the performance of industrial and service systems.
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