Help Us Stop Governor Walz From Imposing California’s Car Rules on Minnesota!

In late September, Governor Walz announced that he would seek to impose California’s mandates for zero emission vehicles and low emission vehicles on Minnesota. Rather than passing this proposal through the normal legislative process, Governor Walz is trying to impose these rules on Minnesotans by instructing the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to draft the mandates forcing our state to comply with regulations drafted by unelected bureaucrats on the California Air Resources Board. Why wouldn’t Governor Walz want to go through the legislative process where legislators can weigh the pros and cons of the proposal and vote accordingly? Probably because these...

The Pros and Cons of Marijuana Legalization

Plans are afoot to legalize recreational marijuana in Minnesota. What can the experience of the 11 states which have already legalized recreational marijuana in some form tell us about the likely consequences? The Pros On one side of the ledger are the economic benefits from legalizing an extensive black market. The Marijuana Policy Group estimates that Minnesota stands to gain at least $1.2 billion taxable sales revenue within first 5 years of marijuana legalization and a creation of 27, 000 jobs directly or indirectly related to marijuana. The market potential is slightly smaller than that of Colorado due to small...

The City of Corcoran planned to use building permit fees to finance its city hall renovation

Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking to a local city council about the obstacles to the construction of affordable housing which state and local governments erect in terms of in terms of taxes, fees, and regulations. According to a report from the Housing Affordability Institute, some localities are using these fees, which are meant to be for services rendered, to pad their general funds. I referred to the example of the city of Corcoran, which had been reported as using building permit fees to finance a city hall renovation. This, according to one of those present, was “a lie”....

AMERICAN EXPERIMENT BOOK SHELF

The Indiana teachers’ union rally: ‘Circus, but no bread’

As another teachers’ union-led demonstration keeps students out of school, the national headlines covering the rally only focus on part of the story.  

Crime, budget, population numbers suggest public safety needs more attention in St. Paul

The maintenance of law and order is one of the core functions of government. How do you think Saint Paul’s government is doing?

MPUC Continues to Address Utility System Reliability: Gas System Shortcomings Addressed, Electric Generation Issues Receive Scant Attention

The Minnesota Municipal Utilities Association (MMUA) represents electric utilities that are owned and operated by municipal governments throughout the state of Minnesota. The association publishes a monthly newsletter, and one article highlighting the serious reliability issues presented by last winter’s polar vortex was very interesting. I have reproduced the article below and added additional commentary to supplement some of the points made. Minnesota’s electric and natural gas utility systems were stressed last winter, failures occurred, and the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (MPUC) has addressed the issue several times since then, including Oct. 10. The latest meeting revolved around the Xcel...

Check Out American Experiment’s New Scandal Tracker

The cover story in the current issue of Thinking Minnesota is titled “The Masquerade of Good Government.” Written by veteran investigative reporter Tom Steward, it documents the extraordinary series of scandals that have shaken Minnesota’s state government in recent years. Our polling shows that most Minnesotans still think of their state’s government as progressive, clean, and relatively efficient. That description might have been accurate 40 or 50 years ago, but no longer, as Steward’s article shows. Minnesotans need to begin demanding more from their government. This morning, the Center released its Scandal Tracker. This is a product of the magazine...