Metro Area Gets Most from State Business Tax Repeal

Proponents of the elimination of the state business property tax have touted the tax relief that will flow to greater Minnesota businesses. However, the vast majority of the relief will flow to the seven-county metropolitan area, with over a third going to Hennepin...

Small Business Tax Relief? Not So Much

In recent years conservatives have talked about phasing-out and ultimately eliminating the state business property tax. This is the first of a series of articles that will examine various aspects of this plan. This article will examine the distribution of tax relief...
Executive Summary: Minnesota's Budget Surplus

Executive Summary: Minnesota's Budget Surplus

The conservative effort to use the entire budget surplus to reduce state taxes—often referred to as the “give it back” campaign—is based on the premise that state revenues and expenditures have increased dramatically and thus all legitimate state expenditure needs...
Minnesota's Budget Surplus: Balancing Tax Cuts and Investments

Minnesota's Budget Surplus: Balancing Tax Cuts and Investments

I. Introduction Last March, a group of legislators gathered at the State Capitol with a simple message: “Give it back!” The “it” refers to the state budget surplus, then projected to be nearly two billion dollars for the upcoming fiscal year (FY) 2016-17 biennium....

The "Real" Story Behind State and Local Government Inflation

When measuring changes over time in income, wages, revenue, spending, or just about anything else that is measured in dollars, amounts are commonly adjusted for the decline in the purchasing power of the dollar due to inflation. Without inflation adjustments, we have...