2018 February Forecast: Small Change from November

by | Feb 28, 2018

The 2018 February Budget and Economic Forecast released by Minnesota Management & Budget (MMB) today projects a $329 million surplus in the current fiscal year (FY) 2018-19 biennium, a slight reversal from the small deficit anticipated in the November 2017...

State Revenues: the Real Story

by | Feb 9, 2018

Minnesota conservatives argue that the state general fund grows bigger and bigger, year in and year out. After adjusting for inflation, however, per capita general fund revenue in Minnesota falls short of levels seen at the beginning of the current century. While the...

Enjoy Your Penny While You Can, Homer Simpson

by | Feb 1, 2018

A recent blog post from the Center for the American Experiment (CAE)—Minnesota’s right wing think tank—features an overjoyed Homer Simpson. Homer apparently celebrates the “bonuses and pay hikes” that Minnesota workers are supposedly receiving through recent federal...

Long Live the Death Tax!

by | Jan 25, 2018

Conservatives hate the estate tax, which falls primarily on a tiny sliver of the very wealthiest households. However, criticisms of the estate tax do not hold up well under close scrutiny. We examined the criticism that the estate tax constitutes “double taxation” in...

Is the Estate Tax Really “Double Taxation?”

by | Jan 20, 2018

Estate taxes reduce wealth inequality by taxing a portion of huge intergenerational wealth transfers, as noted in the previous installment in this series. Nonetheless, conservatives consistently call for reductions to or elimination of this tax, partly on the grounds...

Estate Taxes in the Age of Inequality

by | Jan 18, 2018

Income and wealth inequality has accelerated in recent decades; at the same time, reliance on the progressive estate tax as a state revenue source has waned. Certainly, the decline of the estate tax is not the only—or even a primary—cause for the increase in...