After scoping dozens of sites, including four outside of Minnesota, the firm landed close to home in New Brighton amid a pocket of north suburban med-tech companies. Similar deals have been inked across Minnesota lately involving both homegrown firms and out-of-state recruits, many eagerly touted by Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton's administration as proof government can play a key role in priming economic development. The governor is adamant that a turnaround on his watch is undeniable and that more jobs are on the way, helped along by incentive programs like the new $24 million Minnesota Job Creation Fund and a supersizing of the loan-based Minnesota Investment Fund he helped launch 30 years ago. According to Pew Charitable Trusts researchers, each state has at least one tax incentive program for economic development — and most have several — that gobble up billions of combined tax dollars per year. At Good Jobs First, a left-leaning think tank that has produced reports skeptical of such programs, executive director Greg LeRoy has detected a shift toward pay-for-performance designs. Just Friday, Nevada's Republican governor enacted legislation giving Tesla Motors tax credits and other incentives worth up to $1.3 billion for locating a new $5 billion battery factory there instead of California, Arizona, New Mexico or Texas.