Minnesota needs a new voice

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As Minnesota enters the third decade of the 21st century, the state faces serious challenges: a shrinking labor force and limited economic growth and innovation, educational disparities and serious public health issues, and elevated rates of violent crime.

Alongside these are a state government that is increasingly animated by the far left and growing dramatically in size, cost and scope without commensurate benefits or appropriate accountability, and extraordinary political polarization and deep cultural differences dividing the metro and most of greater Minnesota.

Many, seeing these issues, believe stagnation is Minnesota's inevitable future. They are wrong.

Minnesota can successfully meet its challenges, but it will take new ideas and a fresh vision. Today I am proud to announce the launch of the Minnesota Private Business Council. Composed of businesses from a broad array of Minnesota industries, the MPBC will fight for common-sense policies leading to job growth and higher wages, new business creation and entrepreneurship, responsible, accountable and transparent government, and broad-based well-being for Minnesota's workers and their families.

Certainly the MPBC will advocate against many things. It will be no surprise that we will oppose historic spending hikes that fund the latest progressive fads and prop up political constituencies as Gov. Tim Walz has prioritized. We will oppose nutty energy mandates, like those passed this legislative session, that will leave Minnesotans broke and in the dark. We will oppose defund-the-police policies and other reckless efforts that have embarrassed Minnesota on the world stage, destroyed communities and small businesses, and taken so many lives.

But fundamentally the MPBC will be marked by what we advocate for. We will advocate for tax policy that supports the middle class, encourages investment and allows Minnesota's industries to thrive. We will advocate for energy, regulatory and spending policies that grow great jobs here in Minnesota instead of driving them out of state. We will advocate for sensible approaches to public safety that deal with violent and other serious crime. We will advocate for responsible government in a time of an extraordinary lack of accountability.

Some will question whether Minnesota's private sector businesses can truly fight for all Minnesotans. We answer that we can and we will. In this current moment it is the progressive left in our state that has become the tribune of the corporate ultra-elite and it shows in everything from political spending to legislative priorities.

Minnesotans need a different voice from the private sector, one that stands up for sober economic policy and for the priorities of ordinary Minnesotans. That's what we will be.

We will put forward a vision for Minnesota in which people of all backgrounds and walks of life have opportunities to work in well-paying jobs with dignity and live in flourishing communities with security. We will work for a state that sets aside the hard-left politics of the current moment — an aberration in our state's history — in favor of serious policies for a serious time. A state people flock to rather than exit.

Minnesota has immense human, economic, educational and natural resources. That the state has found itself faced with so many serious challenges is an indictment of its leadership. The MPBC will argue for the policies necessary to unleash the state's potential.

Minnesota has much to be proud of in its history. We are the state of explorers who sought the Northwest Passage, of soldiers who fought at Gettysburg; of doctors who built the Mayo Clinic, of farmers who have fed the world and miners whose labor helped build it, of freedom fighters who led battles for civil rights for all, of innovators who created some of the world's most successful companies and of statesman who have shaped American history.

Inheriting a state with this exceptional past, we must ensure that it has an exceptional future. We can face down the adversities of this current moment and set the course for decades of prosperity. We at the MPBC will work with all people of good faith to ensure that we do.

Jim Schultz is the president and executive director of the Minnesota Private Business Council and was the Republican nominee for Minnesota attorney general in 2022. He can be reached at jim@growthmn.com.