This morning, I testified in front of the Senate tax committee in Saint Paul in favor of Senate File 1448, which would repeal Minnesota's estate tax. This tax likely costs the…
If, with historically high revenues, they have failed to perform key tasks such as road maintenance, it isn't clear that a lack of money is the problem.
The good news is that the rich will pay for everything. The bad news is that you’re rich.
The state government forecasts that, in coming years, spending growth will outpace economic growth. This means a growing share of the state's economy swallowed up by government.
John Phelan, Economist at Center of the American Experiment, released the following statement in response to Minnesota’s February Budget and Economic Forecast: “With a $1 billion surplus and state tax…
A surplus of $1.0 billion poses the same questions as a surplus of $1.5 billion does. Should lawmakers spend it? Leave it with the state's citizens? Hold fire until the…
Today Governor Walz announced his proposal to take out another $1.3 billion in bonds backed by state taxpayers. If passed, the $1.3 billion in borrowing would be added to the…
Taxes are incentives. Change them, and you'll change behavior. Sen. Warren's assumption that 'the rich' will make no response to her wealth tax is completely unrealistic.
In terms of revenue the politicians in Saint Paul have never had it so good. Why, then, are they pleading poverty and planning to take more of their citizen’s money…
All that’s needed is a bit of spending restraint to put the budget on a glide path to balance.
And it's a spending problem, not a revenue problem — making proposals like "Medicare for All" or a "Green New Deal" even more worrisome.
One of the great myths of public finance is that politicians can help themselves to more of their citizens' income simply by raising tax rates. The historical record shows that…
A failed plan to deliver internet to rural Minnesota will cost all taxpayers.
Minnesota has taxes above the national average and Research & Development spending below. New research suggests that the two might be linked.
About 40 percent of adults said that if faced with a $400 unexpected expense, they not be able to pay it with cash or would do so by selling something…
Higher tax rates don't necessarily mean higher tax revenues. Examples of this abound. Corporate tax revenues went up in Britain after the government cut corporate tax rates and in Canada high-income…
One of the great myths of public policy is that politicians can help themselves to more money simply by raising tax rates. As the evidence shows, it ain't necessarily so.
Tax cuts are not handouts. Handouts are handouts. If you oppose corporate handouts, make sure you're opposed to the right thing.
Minnesota's Individual Income Tax revenues started rising in 2011, two years before the state's hike in the top rate of income tax. If Illinois' policymakers are considering similar tax hikes…
The objective of the $55 million RS Fiber Cooperative high-speed internet system looks intriguing on paper. Proponents pitch it as a world-class internet system designed to equip rural residents in…
At some point, the irresistible force of insufficient government revenues is going to meet the immovable object of entitlement commitments.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. That should be the tagline for MNIT, the state agency responsible for development and implementation of the disastrous vehicle and…
What does it really mean to drain the swamp that consists of two million bureaucrats nationwide? We may find out, following a series of aggressive steps announced by President Trump…
The Congressional Budget Office's forecasts for federal finances make for grim reading and it is out of control entitlement spending which is to blame.