Aleta borrud

• Many large corporations like Amazon pay a significantly lower tax rate than small businesses. Will you support closing loopholes through legislation to ensure that the very wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share in taxes? Examples of legislation that address this issue (at the national level) include Sen. Wyden's Small Business Tax Fairness Act and Rep. Bowman's Babies Over Billionaires Act.

  Yes.

  My state of Minnesota must have the resources to address significant needs for affordable housing, healthcare, childcare and to raise the wages for elder, disability, and home care providers. Smaller communities are struggling to pay for shared needs such as first responders, public safety, government and public schools. When the wealthiest individuals and corporations fail to pay their fair share of services that have helped to create their wealth, it falls on middle income earners and those paying property taxes to support such services. Our communities will be healthier, safer, and more vibrant if our state has the revenue to invest in the services people need. Finally, the dollars spent on goods and services provided by Main Street businesses generally stay in our communities, maintaining the vitality of our rural and smaller communities.

• Massive corporations dominate our economy today. Over the last two decades, 75% of US industries have grown more concentrated, with concentration in the average industry nearly doubling. This has left everything from production of baby formula, e-commerce and healthcare in the hands of a few massive companies that choke off small businesses, raise prices on consumers, and cut wages. Would you support state-level reforms to our antitrust laws to prohibit anti-competitive conduct and breakup monopolists?

  Yes.

  As someone who has worked on both healthcare and farming issues, I have seen first hand what consolidation means. In healthcare, it means the loss of clinics and hospitals across our rural landscape, increasing the risk for poor outcomes for rural people. In farming, it means the loss of family farms, especially in animal agriculture, due to the control over milk hauling and meat processing. That has resulted in the emptying out of our smaller towns, with loss of Main Street businesses as well as absentee landowners who are indifferent to the pollution caused by massive manure lagoons or excess application of herbicides and pesticides. We saw directly the implication of this during the early stages of the COVID pandemic, when thousands of hogs were needlessly destroyed due to lack of meat processing capacity due to closures of local processors and consolidation in the industry. This directly impacts our food security.

• Attorney General Keith Ellison has worked to reprioritize antitrust enforcement in Minnesota, including expanding the antitrust division. However, there are still only a handful of attorneys in the attorney general’s office dedicated to curbing the power of the monopolists that threaten small businesses. Will you support additional funding for the attorney general so that Minnesota can adequately enforce our antitrust laws and create a level playing field for small businesses?

  Yes.

  The failure to fully fund the Office of the AG represents corporate influence in our legislature that opposes any effort to curb the power of corporations. We could see this in the efforts of our prior AG to prevent for-profit health insurance corporations from operating in Minnesota and to prevent the transfer of reserves held by "non-profit" insurers to their for-profit entities. Concessions were made on both these accounts to the detriment of people who do not benefit from truly affordable health insurance on the marketplace. If we are to save our land and water from the kind of pollution caused by industrial animal operations as in Iowa, we must provide the AG's office with the resources to enforce antitrust laws.

• Do you have other ideas on how state policy can be used to protect small businesses from concentrated corporate power?

  In my new district I have found that there are only 2 grocery stores in all of Dodge County due to the consolidation in agriculture. Many businesses closed during the COVID pandemic, leaving large areas of the county without any services. Yet low housing costs would make the area attractive for families. Start up grants and loan programs for businesses in economically depressed areas targeting general and grocery stores, childcare services, value added food processing, and restaurants might provide anchors for the rehabilitation of our rural communities and give emerging entrepreneurs a start. However, to make this a financial reality, we need a public option or universal health insurance.

• Small business employees are only able to work limited hours due to the cost of childcare, a crisis that has only worsened during the pandemic. Do you support capping and subsidizing childcare costs to make it more affordable and accessible, in particular for women of color?

  I supported the proposal made in the Minnesota House this last session to cap childcare costs at 7% of a family's income. I have lobbied to maintain CCAP and end the cap on enrollment. However, to make childcare readily accessible to all who need it, we must increase the CCAP reimbursement rates to at least the federally recommended 75% of median costs if we are to retain childcare providers.

• The pandemic exposed and exacerbated the lack of access to guaranteed, universal paid family and medical leave for so many small businesses. The vast majority of small businesses lack the capital and the scale to offer paid leave, even when owners want to provide this benefit to their employees. At the other end of the spectrum, sole proprietors frequently are unable to access paid leave and have to accept a significant loss in income when they are out because of reasons related to caregiving or injury/illness. Moreover, private insurers generally do not offer affordable, adequate paid medical leave policies to small businesses and do not offer paid family leave nationally at all. State programs have shown universal paid leave helps level the playing field between them and large businesses. Do you support a universal paid leave policy for small business owners and their employees?

  Yes.

  We must have universal policies that put Main Street businesses on an equal footing with large corporate entities to ensure they can recruit and retain the best employees. Our small businesses have greater loyalty to their employees but must bear disproportionate losses to help staff manage emergencies. I have been a vocal supporter of PFML.

• Access to affordable healthcare is an ongoing struggle faced by rural and urban Minnesotans alike. This issue is especially burdensome to sole proprietors, small business owners and their employees on Main Street. Rising drug costs, copays and deductibles mean that even those with health care coverage still pay thousands of dollars per year out of pocket, which means many people avoid getting treatment except for catastrophic health issues. This increases costs for the entire state when people cannot afford regular preventative care and results in ever increasing premiums. Small businesses struggle to pay health insurance for their employees, particularly when small businesses pay 18% more for health care coverage than do large corporations and 1/3 of all dollars spent on health care go to administrative costs. Will you work to ensure all Minnesotans have access to quality, affordable health care?

  Yes.

  As a physician, I have been a supporter of a universal health insurance system not run by corporate insurers for decades. As a member of Land Stewardship Project I have lobbied (alongside MSA) for expansion of the MNCare program for all small businesses but fully support going farther towards a universal health insurance program and am a member of HCAM.

• Do you believe health care is a right for all people, and will you join the Minnesota Health Plan caucus to push for legislation that would provide universal health care for all Minnesotans?

  Yes.

• Investing in equitable capital access is essential for realizing the value of businesses launched by entrepreneurs not well-served by the current financial system. Black and Latinx entrepreneurs, in particular, have less business equity on average than their white counterparts and experience discrimination in lending; due to financial barriers, their businesses tend to bring in lower revenue and have lower profit margins. Women-owned businesses face similar challenges. This is particularly significant because Black-owned and Latinx-owned businesses are also more likely to be women-owned. Will you lead or support efforts to greatly reduce and hopefully eliminate this discriminatory access to capital for Black, brown, and/or women entrepreneurs so that they too can gain equitable access to low-interest capital?

  Yes.

  Demographics show that growth in Minnesota's workforce in the future is increasingly going to be among New Americans and communities of color. We will need businesses and services that respond to the preferences of these consumers in order to build wealth and economic security in these communities. Facilitating the potential for building wealth through entrepreneurship among all Minnesotans will be an important basis for our state's future economic growth.

• Expanding access to capital is about more than just offering financial products. It also involves providing the support that allows small businesses to obtain high-quality, affordable financing and use it to solidify and grow their businesses, generate good jobs, and contribute to vibrant, equitable communities. (Examples of support include technical assistance, procurement opportunities, and back-office support systems). What ideas do you have for expanding access to these support systems for entrepreneurs?

  The MN Council on Economic Expansion proposes to fund 50-100 client-facing navigator positions across the state in partnership with Community-based organizations. I am finding that for entrepreneurs from marginalized communities, especially Latinx, that they lack access to mentors and advisors, let alone capital. Yet this is where we need to grow our new small businesses, especially microbusinesses. We need the legislature to be willing to fund trusted navigators based within communities to help grow businesses that then become anchors for further economic growth.

• Small businesses were impacted by COVID at a disproportionate rate (compared to large businesses) and ongoing challenges exacerbated by COVID mean that many industries have not returned to pre-pandemic levels. Many small business owners (particularly those from historically marginalized groups) were left out or disqualified from COVID relief during the pandemic. Though Covid relief programs saved many small businesses, it is clear that the U.S. lacks a public infrastructure for fostering a thriving small business economy – much less a small business economy that is just and equitable. When thinking about the long road ahead towards economic recovery, what ideas do you have in supporting small business owners that have been hit hard during the pandemic?

  The economy continues to move past brick and mortar and the internet favors larger businesses and geographies with adequate internet speeds. Thus getting all geographies connected to high speed internet is essential. Small business needs to be able to compete in the virtual realm with collaborative platforms that could allow for marketing and promotion. In the non-profit realm, companies are exploring shared operating infrastructure. Our rural spaces are desperate for venues that can recreate community. Perhaps micro businesses can utilize shared space within vacant properties and CEDA's can serve to promote community enterprises. In underserved areas that need economic investment, start up grants should be targeted that fulfill community needs, such as childcare or food access.

• COVID has exacerbated existing gaps in the care infrastructure system, unsafe working conditions, and financial burden, among other impacts for small businesses and working families. It is clear that small businesses and working families are still reeling from the effects of the pandemic two and a half years later. With that in mind, why should small business owners and working families trust you with their vote on Election Day?

  I am a geriatrician who has worked for universal healthcare for 35 years. I am dedicated to the revitalization of our rural spaces and reconstruction of Main Street businesses that can bring life back to areas that have been depopulated due to consolidation in healthcare, agriculture, and due to big box stores. I have worked for years for increased investment in our childcare system, for full funding of public education, canvassed for increased taxes on the wealthiest Minnesotans and corporations and for PFML. In addition, I have a deep commitment to racial equity and understand that Minnesota's future rests on ensuring that we work to end the disparities in educational outcomes and wealth acquisition that hold back our New American and BIPOC communities.