In property taxes, workers’ compensation rates and corporate income tax, Minnesota charges businesses more than neighboring states — and that, along with location concerns, provided a key reason for Ford Motor Company to chose a Wisconsin site over Albert Lea or Stewartville, a detailed analysis shows.

Ford Motor Company, according to Minnesota Department of Trade and Economic Development (DTED) Commissioner Rebecca Yanisch, said Friday that state tax law issues were the most important in their decision.

According to a report prepared by the DTED Analysis and Evaluation office shows that Minnesota has higher workers’ compensation rates and corporate tax rates than Wisconsin, Iowa and South Dakota. The state mandates that businesses must pay a certain amount for workers compensation insurance for every employee, which covers work-related injuries.

Based on average costs for manufacturing industry per $100 of payroll, Minnesota ranks 19th in the nation at $2.81 in workers’ compensation charges. Wisconsin ranks ninth at $2.43 per $100. Wisconsin’s average rate is 19 percent higher than Minnesota’s. Other neighbors South Dakota and Iowa rank 10th at $2.44 and 15th at $2.55, respectively.

The DTED report says Minnesota has actually gotten more competitive with neighbors since the last report was done a decade ago, when the state was 34th in workers’ compensation costs.

Rep. Dan Dorman, R-Albert Lea, said he would like to see the compensation rates go down for Minnesota. &uot;I don’t look at doing this for helping businesses,” he said. “If you don’t have a good economic-development climate you are going to lose jobs.&uot;

Another area cited was Minnesota’s statewide corporate income-tax structure. Those rates are also higher than Wisconsin’s and South Dakota’s. Minnesota’s rate ist 9.8 perent and Wisconsin’s is 7.9 percent; South Dakota has no income tax. The report explained that the rates are general rates only, and that the determination of taxable income varies between states.

Dorman, however, said that Ford’s decision had more to do with property taxes than corporate income taxes.

&uot;I can guarantee you that Iowa and Wisconsin have lower property taxes than we do,&uot; Dorman said.

Gene Smith, the county administrator for Dunn County, where Menomonie is located, was formerly the county administrator in Freeborn County. He said location and the size of the business community were likely important factors in Menomonie’s favor.

&uot;Probably the most significant difference is simply our location relative to the Twin Cities, Eau Claire and even Chicago,&uot; he said. Menomonie is 70 miles from Minneapolis; Albert Lea is 97 miles away. From Chicago, Albert Lea is 401 miles while Menomonie is 341 miles away.

&uot;To some degree I suspect that a difference has been in historical success,&uot; Smith said. &uot;Dunn County has a 3M plant, an extremely large Wal-Mart distribution center, Phillips Plastics and Cardinal Glass, all Fortune 1,000 companies.&uot;

Ford, which has 10 distribution centers nationwide, is creating 21 new centers and closing eight existing ones. They picked the Menomonie site to be their upper Midwest center.

Menomonie will buy the 20-acre site near the city’s industrial district for $20,000 an acre from Minnesota-based 3M, converting it to a tax-increment financing (TIF) district, allowing property taxes to be used toward area infrastructure, Menomonie City Administrator Lowell Prange said.

Albert Lea had a similar offer, according to Mayor Bob Haukoos. &uot;The 32-acre site we were offering Ford is worth $1.1-$1.7 million,&uot; he said. &uot;We offered it to Ford for free, through a TIF district.&uot;

&uot;We definitely wanted to see them in Albert Lea,&uot; Haukoos said. &uot;It would have been a tremendous upbeatto get that in here.&uot;

Pam Bishop of Greater Jobs, Inc. said the disapointing decision will make her organization look at lobbying the state a bit more for different tax laws.

&uot;We had high hopes that they would come to Albert Lea,&uot; she said. &uot;I asked Charlie Pryde (a Ford Representative) what could we have done differently or better. He noted that we could have not done anything differently and that the things they based the decision on are literally out of our control.&uot;

&uot;It’s difficult for communities our size to have successful opportunities when at the state level you are not competitive to begin with,&uot; she said. She hopes the city can at least gain from being a final contender for the warehouse.

&uot;We did verything we could as an organization and a community,&uot; she said. &uot;Hopefully we will get noticed beyond this for other companies coming here with distribution warehouses.&uot;