HF 538

1st Engrossment - 80th Legislature (1997 - 1998) Posted on 12/15/2009 12:00am

  1.1                             A resolution
  1.2             memorializing Congress to support legislative 
  1.3             initiatives to mitigate the economic competition among 
  1.4             the states that has resulted from the adoption of 
  1.5             targeted business incentive programs. 
  1.6      
  1.7      WHEREAS, targeted business incentive programs have 
  1.8   proliferated into a counterproductive economic competition 
  1.9   between the states and now form the cornerstone of 
  1.10  state-sponsored "economic development" policies; and 
  1.11     WHEREAS, these programs result in states' engaging in 
  1.12  counterproductive economic competition by moving businesses from 
  1.13  one location to another both within and between states, with no 
  1.14  significant economic benefit in the aggregate; and 
  1.15     WHEREAS, America's economic future in the global economy 
  1.16  depends on the educational, industrial, technological, and 
  1.17  research capabilities throughout the entire 50 states; and 
  1.18     WHEREAS, a specific manifestation of counterproductive 
  1.19  economic competition among states is the use of public resources 
  1.20  to encourage professional sports franchises to move between 
  1.21  states; and 
  1.22     WHEREAS, exemption of professional baseball from federal 
  1.23  antitrust laws contributes to economic inefficiency and to 
  1.24  wasteful uses of public resources; and 
  1.25     WHEREAS, elimination of wasteful programs can be achieved 
  2.1   through a combination of new state and federal policies; and 
  2.2      WHEREAS, states in aggregate would be better off providing 
  2.3   a less burdensome tax climate for all businesses and a quality 
  2.4   educational system geared to providing an adequately trained and 
  2.5   ready work force, support for research and development, and a 
  2.6   quality transportation system, along with other high quality 
  2.7   traditional government services; and 
  2.8      WHEREAS, efforts are currently under way in the Congress to 
  2.9   identify and eliminate federally funded programs that are used 
  2.10  by the states to escalate this counterproductive economic 
  2.11  competition; NOW, THEREFORE, 
  2.12     BE IT RESOLVED by the Legislature of the State of Minnesota 
  2.13  that it strongly urges the Minnesota Congressional delegation to 
  2.14  embrace and support legislative efforts in Congress that will 
  2.15  begin to mitigate this economic competition, including 
  2.16  legislation that would discourage use of public resources for 
  2.17  movement of professional sports franchises, and legislation that 
  2.18  would repeal the antitrust exemption for professional baseball.  
  2.19     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislature of the State of 
  2.20  Minnesota strongly urges the governors and legislatures in other 
  2.21  states to promulgate this message.  
  2.22     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of State of the 
  2.23  State of Minnesota is directed to prepare copies of this 
  2.24  memorial and transmit them to the President and the Secretary of 
  2.25  the United States Senate, the Speaker and the Clerk of the House 
  2.26  of Representatives, the governors and the presiding officers of 
  2.27  both houses of the legislature of each of the other states of 
  2.28  the Union, and Minnesota's Senators and Representatives in 
  2.29  Congress.