Happy Tax Freedom Day Minnesota!

Eight days ago, on April 19th, I wrote to wish a Happy Tax Freedom Day. But that was only for the nation generally. For Minnesota specifically only today, April 27th, do we celebrate our own Tax Freedom Day.

This ranks Minnesota 46th in the nation. Only the residents of Illinois, Connecticut, New Jersey, the District of Columbia, and New York spend a greater share of their working week working for the taxman.

Minnesota is a high tax state. As we wrote in our report The State of Minnesota’s Economy: 2017, as a share of personal income, state-local taxes are higher in Minnesota than in all but seven other states. Minnesota is one of the 43 states to have its own income tax, but the top rate—9.850 percent on incomes over $156,911—is higher than anywhere else apart from California, Maine, and Oregon. Equally significant, perhaps, is the fact that Minnesota’s lowest income tax rate of 5.35 percent is higher than the highest tax bracket in 23 states. While we exempt items like food and clothing, we have the eighth highest state sales tax in the country. Minnesota’s top rate of Corporate Income Tax is 9.8 percent. This is the third highest in the U.S. Only Iowa (12 percent) and Pennsylvania (9.99 percent) have higher rates. A a recent report produced Key Policy Data (KPD), found that Minnesota’s state and local tax burden was the 11th highest in the U.S. in fiscal 2016.

So, every time in the last eight days you have dragged yourself out of bed, commuted to work, put in a shift, and commuted back home again, that has been the price you have paid for having a state government which taxes us at above the national average. That is the real burden of Big Government.

But, if you’re in the mood to celebrate, lets kick off with a song…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gBo9ZyqHo4

John Phelan is an economist at the Center of the American Experiment.