Economic Summit highlighted by U of M President Cunningham, Business Benchmarks

This week, the Chamber hosted the annual Economic Summit, where we discussed a number of issues impacting Minnesota’s economy. We had our friend Blois Olson, and our own Laura Bordelon join us to help us better understand the outcomes of the elections. This year, we also rolled out our 10th annual Business Benchmarks report, and we were pleased to have the new University of Minnesota President Rebecca Cunningham join us for her remarks and a brief conversation with me

As noted, the elections occurred, and we've talked about those on previous podcasts—the importance of the elections and the outcomes. Clearly, a split Legislature means rolling up our collective sleeves and doing the hard work, and we shared some of our plans at our Economic Summit. But it also means that elected officials and those of us advocating for the Minnesota economy need to work together to ensure that we can produce bipartisan solutions because that's what it's going to require with the new split Legislature.

We also shared how our Business Benchmarks report, now in its 10th year, shows how great of a place our economy is, but we have work to do, particularly in the area of managing costs and spending here in the state. You know, the state has been growing spending now instead of growing its GDP—its economic performance. We need to make sure that we are competitive going into the future.

Do note that the Legislature spent our $8 billion budget surplus and replaced it with a $10 billion tax increase. That's not the direction we want to continue in, and we're hopeful and expecting this Legislature to work to manage our economic position and financial outlook so that we are strong going into the future.

According to our Business Benchmarks report, we also need to make sure that we have a workforce for the future. We can't grow our economy without a growing workforce. So, we clearly have workforce and population challenges. We've got to make sure that we keep costs in alignment, as well as ensure that we're investing in our future and productivity to secure an efficient economy in the future.

So, we look forward to working with the governor and Legislature this year to make sure we find reasonable policy and solutions on your behalf—the Minnesota business community.

I will mention also that our Economic Summit each year serves as our annual meeting. This is now the 116th year of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce. We're proud to have been in business for 116 years, being your representative at the Capitol, but also bringing services and products to you—the businesses from across the state—to help solve problems, promote your interests, and connect you to other businesses in the state that want to do business with you.

I will also point out, as noted, that we were pleased to be joined by the new President of the University of Minnesota, Rebecca Cunningham. She served previously as the Vice President for Research and Innovation at the University of Michigan, so she brings a wealth of experience in how to make sure that the economy is working hand in hand with higher education to assure we have a future workforce in the state.

President Cunningham and I had the chance to sit down during our Economic Summit, and we talked about research and innovation and how tech transfer is important for the university system to ensure we have industry creation in Minnesota. But we also talked about our workforce training and skills gaps. We have some areas that we need to work on to make sure that we have the jobs for today and into the future. Our higher education systems are key to ensuring we fill those skills gaps — like STEM jobs. Those are really important today, but we know they're going to be important into the future as we think about the critical role that the University of Minnesota system and all of our higher education institutions provide to our state's economy.

We enjoy an active relationship with the University and other education institutions to ensure that we have that workforce going into the future and the investments necessary to ensure our economic viability.

So, I also want to close with a thank you. As our annual meeting each year does, we recognize our volunteer leaders and thank our members. So, to all of you that engage with the Chamber and support the Chamber, thank you for helping for helping us make sure that you have a great opportunity for your business, your family, and your teams to ensure we have a prosperous economic future for you and businesses across our great state.

Thanks for celebrating our 116th year. Please check out the annual Business Benchmarks on our website at mnchamber.com. We look forward to connecting with you via the podcast on December 6.