News & Updates
Red State, North Star State
Red State Blue State by Aaron Rosenthal
Safety Net Snags: The Effect of Payroll Fraud on Minnesota Workers and Taxpayers
The employer-employee relationship is foundational in the US. Labor protections begin with being recognized as an employee. Funding for many social safety net programs comes from employer and employee contributions. That foundation is now in jeopardy. Rather than...
The State of Working Minnesota 2024
Prevailing Wage Policies: Preventing Workplace Abuses Before They Happen
Digging into Danger: Broadband Installation Damage in Minnesota
In 1998, a crew installing broadband cable for high-speed internet in downtown St. Cloud struck a gas line. The resulting explosion killed four people, destroyed six buildings, and caused $400,000 in damage.[1] More than 25 years later, too little has changed. In...
Striking a Balance: The Role of Unemployment Insurance in Supporting Minnesota Workers
Minnesota's economic landscape is marked by a growing disparity between corporate profits and workers’ wages. Between 2009 and 2021, corporate profits grew three times more than average earnings. When workers take action to shrink this gap, billionaire-backed...
Powering Progress: Transforming Clean Energy Permitting for a Greener Minnesota
In 2023, Governor Walz and the Minnesota Legislature established one of the nation’s most ambitious climate change goals, committing Minnesota to 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040. While many have rightly cheered this goal, several observers have also pointed out...
Building a Reliable System: The Role of Natural Gas in Minnesota’s Clean Energy Transition
Minnesota has set ambitious goals for addressing climate change and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In 2007, the Next Generation Energy Act (NGEA) developed a series of goals to reduce GHG emissions incrementally, aiming for a reduction of 15 percent by 2015,...
Gaining Ground: Minnesota’s Largest School Aid Increase in a Generation
School finance measures approved by the 2023 legislature and signed into law by Governor Walz provided the largest one year increase in state aid to Minnesota school districts in twenty years. According to data from the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE), total...
Subsidizing Abuse: How Public Financing Fuels Exploitation in Affordable Housing Construction
Minnesota faces a significant shortage of affordable housing. Middle and low income Minnesotans are finding it increasingly difficult to rent or buy a home. The supply of low-cost rental housing in Minnesota has actually fallen by a quarter over the last decade, while...
Failure is Not an Option
Despite Minnesota having $12.5 billion in one time money and a structural general fund surplus of $6 billion, there is no surplus in transportation funding. This report details decades of declining revenue from dedicated funding sources of transportation...
Underfunded Minnesota: Collective Investment for a Brighter Future
The current budget surplus represents an important opportunity to improve the quality and affordability of life for Minnesotans. For decades, wages have largely stagnated, while workers and families have incurred steeply rising costs for major expenses like childcare,...
Capturing the Moment: A roadmap to high-road carbon capture development
Carbon management technologies are emerging as a critical tool in the fight against climate change. Private sector companies across the United States are investing in ambitious new carbon capture utilization and storage projects. The Biden Administration and Congress...
Losing Ground: State Disinvestment in Students
Our first report, “Losing Ground”, has a simple but stark finding: over the last twenty years, per pupil state aid received by Minnesota school districts declined by 20 percent, after adjusting for inflation. As state aid has fallen off, school districts have asked...
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