Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and the governors of California, Indiana, Nevada and Utah sent a letter to US Senator Max Baucus expressing strong opposition to a $40 billion tax on the medical device industry in the Senate Finance Committee health care reform proposal. The medical device industry employs around 360,000 people in the US, with 60,000 of those jobs in Minnesota at companies including Medtronic Inc., Boston Scientific Corp., 3M Co., and St. Jude Medical Inc.

The medical device tax in the bill would make the US the highest tax jurisdiction in the world in which to produce medical technology.

The letter signed by Governors Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, Mitch Daniels of Indiana, Jim Gibbons of Nevada, Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, and Gary Herbert of Utah.