The news that Minnesota’s state government is forecast to run a budget surplus of $17.6 billion in the 2024-2025 biennium prompted some to ask where all that money came from.…
Hard data suggests not. The news that the state’s largest hotel, the downtown Minneapolis Hilton, would be sold at auction next month renewed a debate on the health of the…
According to the Minnesota Reformer, Uber and Lyft drivers have begun organizing themselves to press state lawmakers to force the tech giants to address long-standing driver complaints of meager wages, unsafe working…
Mike Hughlett at the Star Tribune wrote an excellent story last week detailing how Xcel Energy dropped its highly contested request for a $122 million rate increase in 2023, which…
Edina Public Schools appears set on shelling out around $150,000 to keep district elections during “off-cycle” (odd-numbered) years. The City of Edina offered to continue administrating elections for the district…
One of the front lines in the showdown over the Chinese threat to national security continues to be in one of the seemingly most unlikely of places — North Dakota.…
The Star Tribune ran a story last Wednesday titled “Minnesota’s big economic challenge is where to find people to fill jobs, state demographer says.” It followed this with another on…
Why does public education devour 40 percent of Minnesota’s state budget, and that figure is certain to climb even higher in the 2023 legislative session? American Experiment’s Catrin Wigfall recently…
The Pioneer Press asks Minnesota has a surplus of nearly $18 billion. Are taxes too high? Or spending too low? The answer apparently depends on who you ask. But what…
One of the likely recipients of a chunk of Minnesota’s forecast budget surplus of $17.6 billion is a scheme for paid family and medical leave. You might ask yourself, ‘What’s…
The $500,000 MnDOT grant came to Brainerd packaged under an innocuous enough sounding state program called “Safe Routes to School.” SRS funds construction for sidewalks and crossings near schools to…
I’m always surprised at the amount of pushback that criticisms of the Northern Lights Express draw. I write about a number of contentious topics here — taxes, spending, regulations, for…
The quantity of metal required to make just one generation of renewable tech units to replace fossil fuels is much larger than first thought. Current mining production of these metals…
This week on The Power Hungry Podcast, Robert Bryce interviews Peter Zeihan, a geopolitical strategist and the author of four books, including most recently, The End of the World is…
State and local taxes and spending The Globe: Worthington City Council talks budget ahead of December certification deadline Alexandria Echo Press: Douglas County commissioners approve 2023 budget of nearly $64.6…
In recent years, Hollywood celebrities have possibly been among the most outspoken proponents of higher taxes, with some of them even penning a letter calling for higher taxes. Why they…
Why are prices rising? One theory is ‘cost-push’ inflation. According to my old Dictionary of Economics, this is: Inflation induced by a rise in the costs of production of goods…
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has drawn considerable attention for her executive order banning the Chinese-controlled app TikTok on state government phones and devices in her state. The Republican governor…
Wind and solar advocates in Minnesota often claim that the buildout of these energy sources will create quality jobs and strengthen the state’s economy, but the ongoing energy crisis in…
The short answer is “no” when looking at three key measures. Earlier in the week, I posted a pie chart of state government spending. The chart shows that just two…
It was bound to happen given the steady decline in college enrollment nationwide. Fewer students equates to fewer dollars coming in the door, forcing administrators to face inevitable budget cuts…
There are many reasons why a secure border is critically important for the U.S. The lack of a secure border amplifies the devastating impacts of illegal drug smuggling and the associated…
Three things are essential for economic growth: an increase in labor (number of hours worked), an increase in capital, and an increase in total factor productivity, which can be understood…
Free-food nonprofit is seeking reinstatement to program. Most of the attention in Minnesota’s free-food scandal has fallen on the now-defunct nonprofit Feeding Our Future. The second-largest nonprofit in the free-food…