RealAudio 2.0 14.4

MANY POLITICIANS TALK ABOUT ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT in terms of business retention and job creation. But Jesse Ventura has only one idea for spurring economic growth - lower taxes for businesses and individuals.

Ventura: You know, economic development is not giving money to the government, it's keeping it in the private sector. You will then have great economic development. If we all have more money to spend, guess what we're gonna do? We're gonna invest it and spend it! Which is going to do what? Create a better economy!

Ventura: By going to a national sales tax, you would get the gross of your check, and you would decide what you're taxed on by what you bought. Now, what else does that do? It gets everyone - drug dealers, illegal aliens, tourists. Everyone would pay to the economy. And what it also does - it puts the government then on a direct budget with the economy. If the economy struggles, so would government. So it would be in government's best interest then to keep the economy good. Right now the government doesn't suffer, private citizens do if the economy goes bad.

Ventura: I would have no problem with slots at Canterbury if they put a big sign on them saying "Every nickel of profit from this goes to stadiums." Because that way the people are then volunteer paying. They can't complain! If there's a big sign there, they know when they put a buck in that slot and lose where it's going! Why haven't they simply gone to the public and say, "Who wants to volunteer to help pay for a stadium?" Heck, I might throw in a hundred bucks!

Ventura's sparse views on economic development may cost him votes outside of the Twin Cities. While spurring economic development clearly isn't Ventura's top priority a new survey by the Blandin Foundation finds in outstate Minnesota - it's the most important issue to voters.