ST. PAUL – After coming in first place in CNBC’s “America’s Top States for Business” list last year, Minnesota has fallen to fourth place in its 2016 analysis. State Representative Greg Davids (R-Preston), who chairs the Minnesota House Taxes Committee, said he wasn’t surprised.

“Our tax rates are obscene and business analysts across the nation have noticed,” Davids said. “The Legislature addressed this problem by approving an overwhelmingly bipartisan tax relief proposal last session, but Governor Dayton vetoed it."

According to CNBC’s report, Minnesota's worst category this year is the Cost of Doing Business, where it comes in at 35th — an unfortunate consequence of taxes that are among the highest in the nation. Minnesota has the top individual income tax rate of 9.85 percent and the corporate tax rate is 9.8 percent. State and local sales tax are both 7.875 percent.

CNBC also stated that “Gov. Mark Dayton claims that his state is high-tax, high-value, but job growth and the overall economy have slowed a bit in the last year.”

Davids said the statewide rankings would improve if Governor Dayton would call a special session in order to approve the tax relief bill.

“Instead of doing what’s right for the people of Minnesota, Governor Dayton is holding the tax relief bill hostage because he wants more light rail funding for Minneapolis,” Davids said. “Working families and Main Street business owners would benefit directly from this tax relief proposal, and the legislation would ultimately make Minnesota a better place to do business.”

A link to the CNBC report can be found here.