County Expenditures Follow Revenues, Downward

by | Nov 21, 2016

Total Minnesota county expenditures, adjusted for inflation and population growth, have followed county revenues downward over the last ten years. Using data from the 2014 Minnesota County Finances report, published by the Office of the State Auditor (OSA) earlier...

County Revenues Have Declined Since 2005

by | Nov 18, 2016

Total revenue of all Minnesota counties is down modestly over the last decade, after adjusting for inflation and growth in the state’s population. The largest portion of this decline is the result of a steep reduction in state aid to counties, which had the...

Income Inequality Continues to Escalate

by | Nov 14, 2016

Last summer, two separate North Star articles (published on July 18 and August 29) explored the growth in U.S. and Minnesota income inequality since the 1970s and 1980s. While recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau showed significant income growth in 2015, income...

Post-Great Recession, Rich Get Richer and Poor Get Poorer

by | Nov 10, 2016

We’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that average U.S. and Minnesota incomes increased from 2014 to 2015. Further good news for Minnesotans is that income growth among each of the Gopher State’s six income groups outperformed the...

Income Growth by Income Group: Minnesota vs. U.S.

by | Nov 9, 2016

Minnesota fared better than the national average in terms of income growth since the Great Recession, based on Census Bureau data summarized in a September 21 North Star article. A deeper dive into another batch of recently released data from the American Community...

Role of Government in Reducing Poverty

by | Nov 3, 2016

Poverty rates fell significantly from 2014 to 2015, based on new data from the U.S. Census Bureau, summarized in a recent North Star article. While poverty fell significantly in 2015, poverty rates in Minnesota and nationally remain above pre-Great Recession levels....