N.D. Republican Quotes from the Week

From the Bismarck Tribune

Republican Dwight Grotberg, said he supports an increase in the minimum wage, but that $7.25 is too high.

“It seems like quite a jump from where it is now to what the proposal is,” Grotberg said.

Grotberg said he would like to see the market set the minimum wage and that increasing it too much could hurt small businesses.

Grotberg does support a full repeal of the estate tax, because he said it can force farmers to sell land to pay it.

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Matt Mechtel, a Republican challenging Pomeroy in the November election, said the bill would have been a positive for North Dakota, although he said if Republicans really wanted to raise the minimum wage, they would introduce a bill addressing just minimum wage.

“In a way, it is dirty politics,”Mechtel said.

Mechtel said he supports repealing the estate tax because people in North Dakota, including farmers, are spending a lot of money on financial advisers to figure out ways to avoid the tax.

“The reality in North Dakota is that there are a lot of people working every day to get around the estate tax,”Mechtel said.

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Ken Karls, chairman of the North Dakota Republican Party, criticized Pomeroy this week for voting against the bill.

“Congressman Pomeroy is apparently more determined to deny North Dakota property owners the chance to pass their land, farms and assets to their families than he is to raise the minimum wage, a primary tenet of his party’s platform,”Karls said in a written statement.