The 1% vs. the Rest of Us

by | Jul 18, 2016

We hear a lot about income inequality, and thanks to a new report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), we now have some state-, county-, and metropolitan area-level data to take a closer look at local inequalities. According to EPI: “Income inequality has...

Don’t Blame Blue-State Policies for Red-State Outcomes

by | Jul 15, 2016

Conservatives frequently claim that “blue-state polices” are hurting Minnesota’s economy. One line of analysis they have used is to identify negative or lackluster economic trends since the turn of the century and then lay blame for them at the feet of progressive...

Mid-Week Reads: Intelligence and Pollution

by | Jul 13, 2016

Every week, North Star will take some time out of our schedules to bring you our favorite reads from the past week. Jeff Van Wychen The War on Stupid People Intelligence—narrowly defined in terms as the kind of “smarts” that is measured by SAT scores—is an attribute...

Impact of 2013 Legislation on 2014 Rankings is Modest

by | Jul 12, 2016

A pair of recent North Star articles demonstrated that Minnesota was fairly typical of other states in terms of the size of government. Total state and local government expenditures per $1,000 of personal income* in Minnesota were modestly below the national average,...

A Closer Look at IRS Migration Data

by | Jul 8, 2016

Earlier this year, the conservative Center of the American Experiment (CAE) released a report based on Internal Revenue Service Statistics of Income (SOI) that purported to show significant migration of high income households from Minnesota due to the state’s tax...