Off-The-Cuff

Historically, summer has been a slow season for Mankato retailers. Thousands of college students have gone home and many permanent residents are out vacationing. The rest of our reading area doesn’t see such a decline.

Spring in Minnesota usually translates to higher taxes in some form or another because of politicians of both parties doing their part to nurture and grow state government anew. It’s an annual rite. Our legislator/gardeners really do seem to enjoy watering and fertilizing and planting.

As 2012 was ending, many southern Minnesotans were reminded from media reports of the Dakota hangings of 150 years ago in downtown Mankato. This wasn’t southern Minnesota’s greatest day ever—it was one of our worst. In part, the Dakota weren’t given legal counsel or translators.

It’s a New Year and reason for economic optimism pervades—at least in southern Minnesota, where, for the most part, the farm economy and farmland prices have been going well. Thank goodness we have agriculture propping up our regional economy. Look for at least two or three Connect Business Magazine feature stories on agriculture-related businesses over the next several issues. That said, buckle your seat belts and away we go….

We heartily thank our readers who nominated their colleagues or friends for our Tenth Annual Connect Business Magazine/KEYC-TV Business Person of the Year Awards.

Often times, after considering a bill’s many pros and cons and neutrals, they end up voting for the lesser of two evils. It’s not an easy job to have. For illustrative purposes, let’s use marijuana—not literally, of course….

Over the years, I have read so many online news articles about government mismanagement of tax money that seeing new examples usually just causes shrugged shoulders and heavy sighs and nothing more. But on rare occasions I become a bit worked up and sometimes write about it here.

Here, in this issue, I feature a slam-dunk of a column that examines the effect personal state income taxes could be having on—of all things—National Basketball Association team records and top-tier Minnesota corporations acquiring the best talent.

I hope you all have been surviving March Madness. At this writing, I’m pretty sure my college team, the Dayton