By Business Roundtable:
Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) and Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI) traveled to the Twin Cities Monday to make the case for comprehensive tax reform. A round-up:
Minneapolis Star-Tribune, “Two congressional leaders kick off tax reform tour in Twin Cities“:
Monday’s tour proved a hot topic among businesses lobbying for lower tax rates, simpler international trade rules and other measures that spur U.S. jobs. At 3M’s Innovation Center, the congressmen examined highly reflective and heat-resistant optical films before meeting with 70 3M employees. Workers said the company often faces high corporate taxes because more than a third of its sales come from the United States.
At Baldinger, a family-owned commercial bakery best known for making hamburger buns for McDonald’s, owner Steve Baldinger told Baucus and Camp that he wants to focus on growing the business instead of worrying about tax rates. “If I could [lean] on you to do one thing, it would be to simplify the code,” said Baldinger, who is the fourth generation to run the company that started in 1888 .
St. Paul Pioneer Press, “Baucus, Camp visit Twin Cities on tax reform crusade“:
Baucus and Camp heard a stream of requests for a simplified tax code as they made their way around the East Side businesses. While the corporate tax rate was mentioned at 3M, many individual taxpayers want reform, and small businesses do, too, Baucus said. 3M, the diversified maker of reflective road markings, office goods such as Scotch tape and Post-it notes, dental filling material and thousands of other products, gets about two-thirds of its revenue from outside the U.S. “We’ve gone from an industrial company to a health care company,” Fred Palensky, 3M’s executive vice president of research and development, told the politicians, mentioning the breadth of the company’s businesses. “We’re in the business of solving problems.”
Baucus and Camp also met with about 100 3M employees, including Lauri Ink, who noted that some 3M products are losing out to Canadian competitors and asked if the U.S. tax rate can be lowered.
MPR News, “Sen. Baucus, Rep. Camp begin tax revamp ideas tour in Minn“:
We decided just to get out of Washington and just meet with people around the country and you’re number one,” Baucus said of the 3M visit. “There is a bit of bubble in Washington, it’s true. And we’re just doing best to kind of break it in some respect.”
In Maplewood, 3M welcomed the two lawmakers at its “Innovation Center,” with a high-tech, multimedia presentation highlighting its mission and some of its products. In addition to hearing about 3M’s global scope, Baucus and Camp heard early on in a question and answer session with employees how high U.S. corporate taxes are hurting American companies trying to compete globally.
Camp and Baucus both agreed something needs to be done to make sure U.S. companies can compete. Camp said the tax code desperately needs modernizing. “We’re out of step,” Camp said. “We are the highest statutory rate in the world and we are the only country in the world left with our particular type of international tax system. … We have to understand that the environment has changed.”
Baucus said it’s not just a concern for 3M. “We hear it constantly: U.S. companies with their higher statutory rates are just having a harder time with international competition,” Baucus said.
Bloomberg, “Bloomberg Embraces Republican in Unlikely Legislative Bid: Taxes.”