OWATONNA, Minnesota — Governor Walz and Lieutenant Governor Flanagan traveled to southern Minnesota on Wednesday to meet with business leaders and discuss job growth and economic expansion.
State leaders stopped at Owatonna Public Utilities, where they were joined by members of the city council, nonprofit and education leaders and small business owners, all in the goal of making Minnesota the best it can be.
The Lieutenant Governor says child care is part of the economy and the backbone of our workforce.
A strong workforce comes from supporting small businesses and providing more housing.
Walz says that by talking to the community, elected officials can find ways to address systemic issues statewide.
“It creates an essentially non-partisan consensus around economic growth that we should be able to find solutions to. To hear these leaders talk about it with such clarity, there are people here who have created thousands of jobs, created opportunities in this community,” Walz says.
As for becoming an “automation”-based state that would use machines instead of employees, Gov. Walz says it’s not about putting people out of work.
“Each of these pieces of automation has either a software engineer or a mechanic who built it or a maker who built the robot, there’s not necessarily a net loss in the end, it’s just more skilled workers,” he said. Explain.
Governor Walz is seeking his second term against Republican challenger Scott Jensen in Minnesota’s gubernatorial race this fall.
