Affordability and anxious times
This article originally appeared in the Winter 2026 issue of Thinking Minnesota magazine.
More Minnesotans are feeling the pinch as state spending, taxes, and the basics of living keep rising, with no relief in sight
Minnesota Malaise” was the cover story for the Fall 2022 edition of Thinking Minnesota magazine, with 56 percent of Minnesotans telling us they expect their children to be worse off than they are. Sixty percent said they put less money into savings, 53 percent delayed a major purchase like a new car or appliance, 53 percent cut back on groceries, and 52 percent were driving less than they used to. Poll respondents were reacting to a peak inflation rate of 8.3 percent at the time of that poll, and their economic anxiety came through loud and clear in the responses.
Three years later, the inflation rate has dropped to three percent, but you wouldn’t know it judging by the results of our current poll. Minnesotans remain anxious about their financial position in life, with 60 percent saying their family’s income is falling behind the cost of living. Thirty-two percent said it was staying about even, and only six percent said their income was going up faster than the cost of living. A majority of every subgroup in the poll (political party, age, and geography) told us their income is falling behind expenses. We’ve moved past malaise and into downright pessimism.
The Thinking Minnesota Poll was conducted by Meeting Street Insights, a nationally recognized polling operation based in Charleston, S.C. Interviews were completed December 1-3, 2025, among 500 registered voters in Minnesota who voted in the Nov. 5, 2024 election using a mix of cellphone and landline interviewing. The margin of error is +-4.38 percent.
Looking at their finances another way, only 18 percent of respondents told us they and their family are better off financially compared to a year ago. Thirty-three percent said they were worse off, and 50 percent said their financial situation is about the same as last year.
The poll also offered respondents four different scenarios to describe their current financial situation, ranging from “I’m confident and secure” to “I’m struggling to get by.” Startlingly, 41 percent of Minnesotans are just struggling to get by or are just able to cover the basics of living with no room for error. The situation is even worse for young people, with almost half of young men and 55 percent of young women struggling to make ends meet financially.
While politicians constantly tell us how we’re supposed to feel, these numbers reveal how Minnesotans actually feel about the economy and their personal financial situation. And it’s not good. Gov. Tim Walz frequently points to national rankings of states to brag about the good life in Minnesota. A recent Walz social media post states, “Just this year, Minnesota has ranked: A top 5 state to live in. A top 3 state for jobs. A top 3 state to retire. A bet against Minnesota is a bad bet.” As it turns out, the subjects of these rankings (Minnesotans) don’t agree.
Affordability has become the buzzword for politicians at all levels, and respondents to this quarter’s poll confirm that Minnesotans continue to be concerned about kitchen table issues. We drilled down into respondents’ personal finances, asking how much they worry about specific budget items. Paying for health care was top of mind, with 74 percent saying they worry about affording it, and 49 percent saying they worry about it a lot. Many are still asking why health care costs have risen so much in Minnesota despite the promises of the “Affordable” Care Act.
Retirement (56 percent), food and groceries (49 percent), and monthly utilities (47 percent) round out the list of worries. These affordability “worries” are directly impacted by state government policies, beginning with taxes. The reason health care, groceries, gasoline, electricity, childcare, and housing are all more expensive in Minnesota than in other states can be tied back to misguided policy decisions made in St. Paul.
Sticking with the capitol, we next asked which one or two issue areas should be top priorities for the governor and state legislature. Inflation and the cost of living topped the list at 25 percent. Health care, another issue linked to affordability, came in second at 23 percent, and taxes was fourth at 18 percent. (Immigration and border security is the third-highest priority for Minnesotans right now, a significant jump, but a story for another day.)
With the state continuing to spend more each year than we take in, poll respondents, by a margin of 78-16 percent, overwhelmingly favor slowing down state government spending over raising new taxes to deal with a future budget deficit. Even Democrats in our poll favor spending cuts (60 percent) to tax increases (33 percent). It’s no surprise that Minnesotans who are worried about their own financial future have no interest in making it worse with higher taxes.
Minnesotans are also losing confidence in another area that directly impacts the economy: education. For the fourth time since 2020, we asked poll respondents to give public schools in Minnesota a letter grade (A, B, C, D, F). The number of respondents who gave public schools an A or B dropped 10 percent since the last time we asked the question in May 2022, and those who gave schools an F tripled from three percent to 10 percent. Fifty-four percent of Minnesotans now give public schools a C, D, or F for performance, the highest percentage those grades have ever received. At the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, only 33 percent of Minnesotans gave schools a C, D, or F grade.
Not surprisingly, parents were harder on the public schools than non-parents, with 58 percent of moms giving schools a C, D, or F and a whopping 18 percent of dads giving schools an F grade. Obviously, parents have a front-row seat to the degradation of our public school system — a system in which more than half of all students are not reading at grade level.
The remarkable fall from grace for Minnesota public schools began during the pandemic, but has persisted as other states recover much faster from the disastrous effects of school closures.
Political leaders at all levels will be wise to pay attention to the anxiety voters are experiencing when it comes to affording their lives right now. Taxes are the obvious place to start. But addressing the role government plays in driving prices up through excessive regulations will also pay dividends. Poor decisions made in St. Paul, despite good intentions, have driven up the everyday costs of energy, housing, childcare, and health care. An affordability agenda that reverses this trend will win the day.