Last week, I summarized the state of play in the budget negotiations in St. Paul and suggested that you “watch this space” to stay informed. If you have been watching…
On Wednesday, I offered a cautious welcome for the House tax bill. Faced with ballooning state government budget deficits as a result of an explosion in spending since 2023, the…
The DFL deficit In February 2023, Minnesota Management & Budget (MMB) forecast a state government budget surplus of $17 billion for the 2024-2025 biennium. In that “historic” session, the DFL trifecta blew…
In December, I wrote about the formation of a “Blue Dog Coalition” in the Minnesota Senate. This is a group of eight DFL senators who, among other things, promise to…
Last week, the following statement appeared on the Minnesota Senate DFL’s website: Today, Senator Matt Klein (DFL-Mendota Heights), Senator Nick Frentz (DFL – North Mankato), Senator Judy Seeberger (DFL – Afton), Senator Grant Hauschild…
In a moment of reflection, Legislative Auditor Judy Randall hit the nail on head when it comes to fraud and mismanagement in the Walz administration. After releasing two scathing audits…
The state’s Legislative Audit office released the report this morning on the state Department of Education’s (MDE) mishandling of the Feeding Our Future scandal. A 120-page PDF of the report…
Last week I noted that, because of the “The ideological divide between the two main parties in the state legislature… we actually see some rather profound debates up at the…
Last year, Minnesota’s legislature blew through an $18 billion budget surplus and hiked taxes and fees by another $10 billion for good measure. You might think that would sate the…
The Minnesota legislature reached another new low this week when Sen. Omar Fateh called Minnesota Senate Republicans terrorists and white supremacists during his speech on the Senate floor in the…
Even with a forecast budget surplus of $1.6 billion for the 2022-2023 biennium and $4.6 billion coming from the federal government in the latest round of COVID-19 relief money, some…
Last week, we released our new paper ‘The State of Minnesota’s Economy: 2020‘. In it, we argued that Minnesota’s economy is being held back by its excessively high taxes. Chief…
Conforming to the federal schedule for depletion and abolishing the corporate AMT wouldn't send Minnesota rocketing up the rankings, but they would be baby steps in the right direction.
A MinnPost article published yesterday shows 123 legislative candidates, including Republicans and Democrats, oppose Governor Walz's attempt to impose California car mandates on Minnesotans. The pledge shows there is strong,…
Is the forecast surplus a nice little bonus for Minnesota's politicians? Or should it be left with the hardworking taxpayers who earned it?
This tax season didn't need to be so taxing for Minnesotans. Our former governor chose to make it so.
Next year Minnesotans will have to fill out a 2018 federal income tax form, a Minnesota-only tax form based on the old federal tax code, and a Minnesota tax form.…
Gov. Dayton's veto of the tax bill means no tax conformity for Minnesota. This will lead to chaos next tax season as ordinary Minnesotans fill out more forms to pay…
When Governor mark Dayton vetoed the tax bill last week, one of the reasons he gave was that “This bill is cake to the rich and big corporations and crumbs…
The Senate Republicans have released their tax bill and, like the bill that passed the House on Monday, it proposes cuts in lower income tax rates. While it leaves higher…
Minnesota's tax climate is bad for business. Happily, two bills, from either side of the aisle, look to help that.
Minnesota's corporate tax rate is the third highest in the United States. For the sake of future economic growth, we should hope that Rep. Joe McDonald's bill proposing a modest…