The Connection Between Public Policy and Prosperity

by | Sep 27, 2017

Since the end of the Great Recession, Minnesota has comfortably surpassed Wisconsin in terms of GDP and income growth, and job creation. Based on newly released 2016 data from the American Community Survey, median household income in the Gopher State is 15.5 percent...

Tax Regressivity in Minnesota vs. Other States

by | Aug 1, 2017

Minnesota policymakers of all political persuasions have touted the importance of reducing tax regressivity—in other words, reducing the extent to which taxes as a percent of income are borne disproportionately by low- and middle-income households. Thus, it should...

Conservative Spending Claims Don’t Add Up

by | May 10, 2017

A recent chart from the Republican Party of Minnesota, reproduced below, purports to show that Minnesota’s general fund budget is growing about 12 percent faster than the state’s economy and about 25 percent faster than the rate of inflation from 2012 to 2017. The...

Minnesota Taxes Much Less Regressive

by | May 4, 2017

Minnesota’s state and local tax system remains regressive, with lower- and middle-income households generally paying a larger percentage of their income in state and local taxes than higher-income households, although the degree of tax regressivity is modest and...

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...