A Fresh Take on Business Taxes

Conservatives and many business groups contend that Minnesota business taxes are high relative to other states. Apart from the dubious merit of some of these claims,* they generally do not take into account the level of economic activity that provides the base from...

Minnesota Manufacturers Optimistic

A recent survey shows that “Minnesota’s manufacturers are feeling remarkable levels of across-the-board confidence in the financial prospects for their companies in 2016,” despite growing uneasiness about the U.S. economy. Concerns among manufacturers about the impact...

The High Cost of Fully Exempting Social Security Benefits

Fully exempting Social Security from the state income tax will result in a rapidly escalating state revenue loss and will have consequences that violate several principles of good tax policy. These and other aspects of plans to exempt all Social Security benefits were...

Impact of State Aid on 2016 Property Taxes

Total property taxes in Minnesota increased by 4.7 percent from 2015 to 2016, exceeding the combined rate of inflation and population growth, with county property taxes increasing by 3.4 percent, city property taxes increasing by 4.5 percent, and school property taxes...