Lori Sturdevant: Anderson added to 2010 tax debate

The tax and jobs policy debate that's been stirring in the 2010 gubernatorial race lost an interesting voice Tuesday, when former state auditor Patricia Anderson announced that she would end her GOP gubernatorial bid and run for her former post instead.

As a candidate for governor, Anderson called for moving Republican ideas about state taxation past the just-say-no atttitude of recent years. She expressed interest in a pro-business tax strategy that would reduce taxes on corporate income and business inputs, and acknowledged that the price for those changes would have to be paid, in the form of higher consumption taxes.

While Anderson stands clearly in her party's conservative ranks, and might qualify by some measures as a libertarian, her tax ideas find an echo in what some DFLers are saying about tax reform. Most (but not all) DFL candidates prefer to raise the state's personal income tax on high-end earners, for the sake of better basing total state and local taxation on ability to pay. But consumption taxes can be structured in ways that shield low- and middle-income earners from their full force.

If the eventual GOP and DFL candidates for governor can find even a few square feet of common ground on this issue, tax reform's chances will be much enhanced in 2011. That could prove important to helping Minnesota share in the benefits of a recovering world economy.