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...

Minnesota State & Local Revenues About Average

by | Jul 5, 2016

The preceding article in this series demonstrated that in terms of state and local government spending per $1,000 of personal income, Minnesota is slightly below the national average based on fiscal year (FY) 2013 data, ranking 31st among states. An examination of...

Minnesota in the Middle in Terms of Government Spending

by | Jun 30, 2016

Minnesota has a reputation among conservatives as a high tax, big government state. However, based on some of the better metrics, total state and local government expenditures in Minnesota are about equal to the national average, with Minnesota ensconced in the middle...

Minnesota GDP Growth Above Average Since 2013 Tax Act

by | Jun 29, 2016

Minnesota conservatives have complained loudly and repeatedly that tax increases in general—and the tax increases enacted in 2013 in particular—will ruin the state’s economy, as businesses flee in response to an “uncompetitive” business environment. However, a recent...

Dynamic Scoring Overlooks Benefit of Public Investments

by | Jun 24, 2016

The lack of consensus among economists regarding the impact of tax changes upon the economy is a major impediment to the use of dynamic scoring in the budgeting process, as noted in the preceding North Star article. Another problem with dynamic scoring models is that,...

Dynamic Scoring: Caveat Emptor

by | Jun 21, 2016

In recent years, there has been a push at both the federal and state levels—coming primarily from conservatives—to adopt “dynamic scoring” to evaluate the impact of changes in tax and fiscal policies. Dynamic scoring attempts to predict the impact of fiscal policy...