Conservative Tax Claims Don’t Square With Reality

Minnesota Illustrated, a new report from the conservative Tax Foundation and the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, makes some startling claims regarding taxes in Minnesota. Parts one and two of this series examined some of the Tax Foundation and Chamber claims regarding...

Per Capita General Fund Revenue Less Than a Decade Ago

The enactment of significant tax increases during the 2013 legislative session, combined with state budget surpluses, has created the impression that Minnesota general fund revenue has grown considerably. This perception is accurate if we measure state revenues today...

Minnesota Outperforms Regional Migration, Population Trends

A new report from the conservative Tax Foundation and the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce—Minnesota Illustrated—generally paints a gloomy picture of Minnesota. The previous article in this series showed that this portrayal was inappropriately bleak in several regards,...

Minnesota Re-Illustrated: Correcting Economic Disinformation

Last week, the conservative Tax Foundation and the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce released a report entitled, Minnesota Illustrated: A Visual Guide to Taxes & the Economy. Much of the information in the report is presented in such a way so as to give the impression...

Fiscal Disparity Program Reduces Business Tax Disparities

The seven-county metropolitan tax base sharing program has successfully reduced property tax disparities within the metro region, as revealed by analysis presented in the previous article in this series. By taxing a significant portion of the business value in the...

Metro Tax Base Sharing Reduces Disparities

The metropolitan tax base sharing program—more commonly referred to as the fiscal disparity program—was designed to meet various tax policy goals, as noted in part one of this series. The success of the program in meeting some these goals—such as fostering “more...