St. Paul has a jobs problem, and the next mayor needs to fix it.

That’s a common refrain among political observers this election season, and one borne out on paper. Minnesota’s capital city regained the jobs lost during the recession, but that job growth has showed signs of slowing. And it’s been nowhere on par with Minneapolis and Bloomington.

In fact, St. Paul was home to just under 181,000 jobs in 2016, according to the city’s Market Watch report, which is 7,000 fewer jobs than in 2000. The residential population is climbing at a good clip, but the number of jobs within the city limits is roughly 2 percent above where it was in 1980.

While unemployment remains relatively low, even the city’s most ardent supporters fear that if the city’s office and commercial tax base doesn’t expand faster, St. Paul could become a bedroom community to its western neighbors. Residents already leave the city in droves each morning to work elsewhere.

If that trend escalates, residential property owners will pay ever-higher property taxes for public services. Even apartment dwellers will absorb the tax burden through higher rents.

Hoping to boost job growth, the city’s Department of Planning and Economic Development recently hired a new director of business development. That comes on the heels of a city-driven “Innovation Cabinet” composed of technology experts and representatives of startup companies and academic institutions.

We asked the city’s mayoral candidates how they draw jobs to St. Paul, whether they supported increasing the minimum wage to $15 per hour, and what business regulations they might add or eliminate along the way.

ELIZABETH DICKINSON

Green Party candidate Elizabeth Dickinson said the city needs to rebrand itself with a new slogan and do more to attract the fast-growing environmental industry such as wind, water and solar power manufacturers.

She said she asked the St. Paul Port Authority staff for insight on job creation and they said, “‘we’re pro-active — we’ll make 100 calls to see what (options) we have.’ … Sometimes, the city, they put out requests for proposals, and then they kind of sit and wait for people to come to them.”

A sign outside of Creed Interactive, a St. Paul software company, on Thursday Sept. 21, 2017. Creed expanded this year into 5,000 square feet of workspace formerly occupied by the Heartland Restaurant in Lowertown. Several of St. Paul's 10 mayoral candidates say they want more 'creative' jobs in St. Paul, like architects and software developers. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press)

Project manager Jessica Calanni, left, and developers Jana Olmstead, center, and Garrick Jacobson call a client about a project as Charlie the dog roams around at Creed Interactive, a St. Paul software company, on Thursday Sept. 21, 2017. Creed expanded this year into 5,000 square feet of workspace next to the former site of the Heartland Restaurant in Lowertown. Several of St. Paul's 10 mayoral candidates say they want more 'creative' jobs in St. Paul, like architects and software developers. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press)

Jonathan Anderstrom, President and co-founder of Creed Interactive, a St. Paul software company, works on a project in the company's Lowertown office on Thursday Sept. 21, 2017. Creed expanded this year into 5,000 square feet of workspace next to the former site of the Heartland Restaurant in Lowertown. Several of St. Paul's 10 mayoral candidates say they want more 'creative' jobs in St. Paul, like architects and software developers. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press)

AJ Jahnig, center, a project manager, talks to Garrick Jacobson, a developer, at Creed Interactive, a St. Paul software company, on Thursday Sept. 21, 2017. Creed expanded this year into 5,000 square feet of workspace formerly occupied by the Heartland Restaurant in Lowertown. Several of St. Paul's 10 mayoral candidates say they want more 'creative' jobs in St. Paul, like architects and software developers. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press)

Jayna Sinn, right, a graphic designer who is working on designing an interface, talks with Jessica Calanni in a conference room at Creed Interactive, a St. Paul software company, on Thursday Sept. 21, 2017. Creed expanded this year into 5,000 square feet of workspace next to the former site of the Heartland Restaurant in Lowertown. Several of St. Paul's 10 mayoral candidates say they want more 'creative' jobs in St. Paul, like architects and software developers. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press)



The business community is increasingly frustrated with City Hall, Dickinson said. During recent Citizens League discussions with a task force of business leaders, “the number one thing that came from that was how unappreciated they all feel.”

As St. Paul rolls out new regulations, such as a potential ban on non-compostable take-out food containers, she feels the city could soften costs by assisting with bulk purchasing.

Dickinson supports a $15 minimum wage without exception, but says the city and Legislature could do more to help businesses execute it, such as allowing the increased payroll taxes to be used to offset company health care expenses.

Commercial developers could be required to include a percentage of affordable retail, office or industrial space for “truly local” startup businesses. She’s also interested in exploring “Lean Urbanism,” such as “pink zones,” or small-business districts where certain regulations are softened to help commerce.

“I’ve definitely talked about having more business navigators to help people through the maze of conflicting requirements,” Dickinson said.

PAT HARRIS

Former St. Paul City Council Member Pat Harris, a senior vice president with BMO Harris Bank, has argued that he’s the most jobs-friendly candidate and the most experienced when it comes to financing.

Harris spent nearly 15 years with a Minneapolis-based financial advising company, RBC Global Asset Management.

Harris has proposed an “access to capital” program that would devote up to $100 million in small-business loans to targeted neighborhoods without raising the tax levy.

“It’s a very bold program, and it’s unique,” said Harris. “We’re going to shift strategies from the bucket of investments St. Paul invests in now.”

The city’s existing long-term investment portfolio would shift to include more insured certificates of deposit, or savings certificates, at community banks, which would in turn offer low-interest small-business loans.

“Some large foundations have shown interest in investing in it,” Harris said. “You could grow jobs inside neighborhoods.”

The best way to create and retain living-wage jobs, Harris says on his campaign website, is through “more efficient licensing and permitting, investing in infrastructure, facilitating connections and leveraging our anchor institutions.”

At a mayoral forum in March, Harris joined the other leading candidates in saying he would support a $15 minimum wage, with possible exceptions such as a credit for tipped employees.

“A wage impact … could have put my dad’s small business out of business,” he said at the time. Since April, Harris has said he supports a $15 minimum wage without exceptions, provided the city works with businesses to help them avoid job loss and inflation.

“As a Metropolitan Airports commissioner, I spearheaded an increased minimum wage for airport workers that is indexed to the state minimum wage so that workers don’t suffer … while the cost of living goes up,” Harris said this week. “I am the only candidate for mayor with a proven record of successfully raising the minimum wage.”

DAI THAO

On his campaign website, council member Dai Thao says he will “go to the mat” to ensure Amazon builds its second national headquarters in St. Paul.

He’s proposing separate job-creation plans targeted to millennials, immigrants, women and African-American entrepreneurs.

“Those communities face different challenges, and they need their own separate tools to help them start a business,” Thao said.

Over the past year, Thao has worked on the city’s “Open for Business” initiative, which recently produced a pocket guide to starting a small business in St. Paul. The guide grew from focus group meetings and discussions with 50 of the city’s small-business owners.

He is also on the board of the St. Paul Port Authority, which has worked closely with the Minnesota Wild to establish a practice rink in the former downtown St. Paul Macy’s building and with Minnesota United to build a Major League Soccer stadium in the Midway.

Thao said the stadium has the potential to “catalyze major redevelopment in the area.”

He envisions a small-business incubator space and “innovation zone” in the Midway where startups might qualify for $25,000 in public matching funds if they obtain funding from venture capitalists.

At the legislative level, he said, a tax on soda distribution could fund youth employment, after-school programs and education.

At a mayoral forum in March, Thao expressed worry over how a $15 minimum wage would affect immigrant shop owners, such as the families who have pooled money to open eateries at the Hmong Village Shopping Center on Johnson Parkway.

More recently, Thao posted to his campaign website that he supports a $15 minimum wage, provided that rules include “flexibility” for small businesses “while they build up the revenue to sustain the higher wages.”

We need “to have small business at the table so they can be part of creating that policy,” Thao said Wednesday. “We won’t just measure our success by meeting a timeline, but by being inclusive. We cannot support an ordinance where the business owners are making $10 an hour and they have to pay their employees $15.”

To flesh out the city’s economic strategy and recruit new businesses and jobs to the city, Thao said he would revive a “Mayor’s Committee of Business Partners” consisting of Fortune 500 CEOs from the east metro, as well as small-business owners.

MELVIN CARTER III

Former St. Paul City Council Member Melvin Carter III said that as mayor, he would have his economic-development team analyze locations throughout the city and market them to businesses that mesh well with the neighborhood.

On his campaign website, Carter notes that St. Paul can’t grow out, so it needs to — literally — grow up. Allowing taller, denser development will help stabilize property taxes, he said.

“New development along the Green Line has demonstrated the incredible potential to add density, tax base and community assets along key corridors throughout our city,” he said.

Carter said retaining high-wage workers means investing in core public services such as libraries, rec centers, public transit and schools, and improving regular communication with business leaders.

“Too often, city staff are set up to play the role of referee — as projects and new developments move forward, they blow the whistle when things go out of bounds,” Carter said. “Our job is to roll out the red carpet and ask how we can help.”

Carter said he would streamline processes for starting a business by simplifying permitting and creating a “one-stop shop” where small-business owners can connect with other state, county and nonprofit programs “that can help them cut waste from their bottom line.”

He said he will “fully support making the minimum wage in St. Paul $15 an hour, without tip penalty.” To allow businesses to adjust, the new minimum wage would be phased in, with small businesses getting more time than larger ones.

TOM GOLDSTEIN

Lawyer Tom Goldstein, who ran a sports memorabilia shop in and around Grand Avenue for 14 years, frequently reminds audiences that he’s the only candidate in the race who has operated a small retail business.

Goldstein, a frequent critic of public money being used to clean up sites such as the new Midway soccer stadium, said the city needs to focus on other types of business help.

“The first thing we have to do is to be very intentional about job creation, reaching out to businesses and seeing what they need beyond a big subsidy,” he said. “Is it workforce? Is it land?”

He calls recent efforts such as the Innovation Cabinet “fine, but it’s way, way late.”

“The Business Resource Center has been dormant for a decade. … We need a functioning one-stop site where someone can show businesses how to navigate the city, and put them in touch with lenders and landlords.”

A revolving loan fund could offer micro-loans as small as $1,000, or even less, to small businesses and startup operations that banks might not take a chance on.

The city needs to more clearly define the types of jobs it’s after, such as solar power and information technology.

“I don’t see how we’re going to get our foot in the door without offering some extra, like broadband infrastructure” to create super high-speed, reliable Internet and data connections,” he said.

Development featuring retail with housing overhead isn’t going to spark a jobs revival, he said.

“Those are not the kinds of jobs that are being grown right now,” Goldstein said.

A $15 minimum-wage requirement should apply to large corporations, he said, rather than small shops just getting underway.

He noted that as corporations raise wages, small shops will feel the wage pressure and increase employee pay as they’re able.

CHRIS HOLBROOK

Chris Holbrook believes the best way to expand business is for government to get out of its way. Holbrook, who chairs the Libertarian Party of Minnesota, wants to eliminate the minimum wage entirely.

Having no minimum wage forces workers to negotiate their own pay, allowing market rules of supply and demand to dictate wages, rather than artificial expectations set by government.

He opposes public subsidies for private development and believes major real estate projects that have been backed by the city would have come together without tax money attached.

He believes the city is too focused on business permitting and inspections, which slows growth, when it should be more focused on actual wrongdoing.

“If someone commits a crime, they get punished,” Holbrook said. “Setting a lot of rules and regulations ahead of time to try to prevent them from committing a crime doesn’t work. It sets barriers to entry.”

TRAHERN CREWS

Trahern Crews believes the city is overtaxing and over-regulating small businesses, at the same time it asks them to take on new responsibilities, such as paid sick leave and increasing the minimum wage.

He supports a $15 minimum wage without exception, but he believes small businesses need more time to implement it than large ones. He does not support banning menthol cigarettes from convenience stores.

He notes that small shops are often run by people of color or employ people of color. “You’re raising their property taxes and taking away a revenue source,” Crews said.

Crews said, however, that he would support new taxes on tobacco, sugar and cotton to fund efforts that would lift the black community out of poverty. The money could be kept in a city-run bank, which could serve as both a small-business lender and a national model for slavery reparations.

“I think our current mayor’s tech innovation cabinet is a work of genius,” Crews wrote on his Facebook page.

He also supports rent control, or a cap on residential rents, which could begin with a voluntary program that would freeze or lower property taxes for landlords who agree to hold their rents steady. Related Articles St. Thomas convenes group on renamings after learning namesake bishop owned slave

Cottage Grove: Read the preliminary NTSB report about the fatal plane crash

Tony Evers extends Wisconsin’s mask mandate until Nov. 21

Fifth annual Selby Stroll in St. Paul to be held Saturday

‘Unfathomable’: US death toll from coronavirus hits 200,000

TIM HOLDEN

Tim Holden, a commercial real estate agent who owns several commercial and residential properties, did not respond to written questions about job creation and the minimum wage except to say he opposed public subsidies for private real estate development.

“I would do exactly the opposite of what Mayor Coleman is doing!” Holden wrote in an email. “Discontinue subsidizing rich criminals. Promote private business. Cut red tape. Get out of the way! Subsidizing development over!!!”