District 4A pits two Moorhead High School alumni in a contest to represent the city in the Minnesota Legislature – Rep. Ben Lien, 33, the incumbent who was first elected in 2012, and Jordan Idso, 21, a full-time economics major at North Dakota State University.

Ben Lien

First elected in 2012, Ben Lien – a lifelong Moorhead resident – knows a great deal about budgeting. Before running on the DFL ticket four years ago, he worked in credit counseling at The Village Family Services, helping clients master monthly budgeting and gain control of their credit.

A 2008 graduate of Minnesota State University Moorhead in political science and history, Ben serves on the House Higher Education Committee’s property tax division, as well as the Greater Minnesota Jobs Policy Committee.

The central issue of his campaign, he says, is securing permanent funding for Minnesota’s border cities program. “All five cities bordering the Red River – East Grand Forks, Moorhead-Dilworth, Breckenridge and Ortonville – face the same challenges for small businesses,” Ben says.

He would like to see a permanent appropriation for the Border Cities Enterprise and Development Zone within the state budget. He also supports developing a student loan forgiveness program for graduates who work in Minnesota, along with other measures to support higher education like closer alignment with the private sector and tax credits for businesses’ contributions to scholarship programs.

The failure of the 2016 bonding bill, he says, needs to be rectified during the first days of the 2017 session. “It was the product of a bad process. The House got the bill 45 minutes before the end of the session, and the Senate got it 15 minutes before the end. It was so rushed that there were bound to be errors and disagreements.” Moorhead’s underpass was among the projects stalled by the lack of consensus on bonding, along with wastewater facilities and flood mitigation.

Ben would like to see future stalemates averted by setting a deadline for House and Senate committees at least 72 hours prior to the session’s close, along with a mandate that final legislation be published online for review 24 hours before a vote.

He says he has been surprised at how easy it is to reach out to other legislators from the Red River Valley who share Moorhead’s concerns and to work together across political lines. “Our common goals transcend a lot of the partisan gridlock and political fighting that people see so much on TV news.”

Jordan Idso

Republican challenger Jordan Idso is learning in his first campaign that his economics studies offer answers to many of the issues facing Minnesota and the nation. “Very few people in St. Paul and Washington, D.C., have a base of understanding when they implement some of their policies,” he observes. “They lack much insight into the consequences, the ripple effects of every piece of legislation.”

Indeed, he says, the country’s rate of economic illiteracy is 99 percent. “Moorhead would be a great place to put that knowledge into practice. It would go a long way to healing and growing the city.”

Its location on the border with Fargo and North Dakota “puts us in a difficult position,” he notes. “The discrepancies between the two states and two cities leave us at a major disadvantage. Fargo is one of the fastest growing cities in the nation – over there, they let business grow.

“I’d like to see people have an easier time choosing Moorhead.”

Jordan believes the special border cities tax zone doesn’t go far enough. “We shouldn’t even need that to be competitive,” he contends. “We need a more ground-up approach – lowering the corporate income tax rate and the corporate property tax. Right now we have a very narrow tax base paying at a higher rate. I would prefer a broad tax base at a lower rate. It would give people a lot more options.”

Improving K-12 education is another of his concerns. “Our school system produces students who are above average in Minnesota, which is above average in the U.S. Yet we are at a disadvantage when we compete on a global scale, with our graduates actually less able to compete with those of other nations in Europe and around the world.”

He advocates loosening the bounds on education to boost achievement through reducing restrictions on charter and private schools. He also supports alternatives such as home schooling and online education. Jordan also is staunchly pro-gun rights and in favor of broadening access to medical marijuana, according to his website.