An utter lack of legislative insight

My state senator, John Doll, recently published an article giving all of the reasons that we should be happy to be paying taxes and about how much they impact the common good and how all of us are contributing to our greater well-being.

He's right on some of these points. Taxes are necessary.

However, he is grossly misleading with this paragraph:

I also hear that if we don’t cut taxes, businesses will flee the state. Yet, did you know that Minnesota has more Fortune 500 companies per capita headquartered here than any other state in the union? Good businesses thrive in Minnesota due to the quality of our human capital, our educated workforce. Thank your public school system for decades of economic prosperity in our state. Once again our tax dollars are helping build a better Minnesota.

What taxes is he talking about? "Taxes" means a whole lot of things, and lately, if we aren't currently being taxed on it our legislators are trying to find a way to tax us.

The fact that we have Fortune 500 companies has little - if anything - to do with our taxes. In fact, high taxes are a huge reason that many companies flee from one state to another (or in some cases, go overseas). To indicate that our high tax rate is the direct reason for our educational opportunities, which in turn is why we have such great companies in the Twin Cities, is extremely misleading and deceptive.