It’s been a dizzying few months for Margaret Anderson Kelliher. She went from Minnesota House Speaker — and arguably the most powerful woman in the state — to failed Democratic nominee for governor, to possible Minnesota Parks Board chair, and now president of the Minnesota High Tech Association (MHTA).
MHTA hailed Kelliher’s hiring as a major coup. The association will need all of Kelliher’s Blackberry contacts because it faces a vastly changed legislature than the one she helped lead. The newly empowered Republican leadership promises job growth but also severe budget cuts.
Kelliher chatted with MedCity News about tax reform, angel credits and why Minnesota needs to create an environment where entrepreneurs can fail.
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Q. The Republicans equate reducing or even eliminating the corporate tax rate with creating jobs. Do you agree?
A. I think the next governor is going to face both a tremendous challenge and an amazing opportunity to modernize the current tax system in Minnesota — to modernize it in a way that’s going to be beneficial to job creation and to make it so that people can understand how it works.
There’s always going to be some element of complexity, but I think there is strong evidence that it’s not necessarily wiping out the corporate tax that will help create jobs, but updating a tax system that makes sense for a modern economy. I think it’s really having a tool box that’s got the flexibility for the state to get job growth going. I don’t think taxes are the only issue people care about here. I think people want a fair tax system, a tax system that produces the outcomes that people need so we have a strong economy.
Q. After years of futility, how did you and your fellow lawmakers finally pass tax credits for angel investors?
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A. I think the years of advocacy by the community that was promoting the angel investor and increasing the R&D tax credits paid off as these two important tools for the businesses in Minnesota. That advocacy was evidence-based and looked at what other states were doing. We need to spur job creation in the state of Minnesota. Finding proven tools to be able to do that is important to people.
Angel investor credits made sense because we have the capacity in our research institutions to do a lot of groundbreaking research that can be commercialized. But the evidence says that after the idea is ready for commercialization, it is going to one of the two coasts. Why is that? Angel credits are just one tool that can help make that commercialization happen in Minnesota. Other factors are science and math education, and the need for a culture of innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship. Those are some of the reasons why I was attracted to MHTA. I want to keep working on those issues.
Q. How do we build that innovation culture?
A. Many of Minnesota’s 20 Fortune 500 companies]started off as entrepreneurial businesses like those we want people to start today. I think we can learn lessons from how those past entrepreneurial efforts developed into the mature businesses they are today. We do have work to do to make Minnesota more of a culture that’s accepting of going out and trying something. If entrepreneurs fail the first time, they should be accepted and try again.
Q. Should Minnesota focus just on strengthening medical devices? Or should we try developing other industries?
A. It’s important to keep a really big strength strong, to make sure its foundation is stable and grow off that strong foundation. Medical devices makes sense as our foundation. Minnesota can work to dominate other industries, like clean energy, in the Upper Midwest and the country. We need to make sure MHTA is inviting in those companies that are both innovating on our chosen fronts, but also building the components that make it the work sustainable.
I would say a diversified portfolio would be important to Minnesota, on the jobs front. When you rest on only one or two industries, you have less ability to weather economic storms. It’s about smart growth in the economy of the future Minnesota, about being purposeful around the climate we’re creating to support job growth. It’s not ignoring the medical device industry. It’s the ability to add to it.
