The losses just keep piling up for Spirit Mountain, the City of Duluth’s ski chalet. So what’s new? Back in 2015, the city transferred $300,000 from the tourist tax fund…
MnDOT continues to move forward on plans to bring back passenger train service between the Twin Cities and Duluth-Superior. It’s an idea that’s already come and gone years ago. The…
There’s a “yuge” public meeting in Duluth tomorrow on the planned Twin Metals copper mine being held up by a last-minute Obama administration preemptive regulatory strike. Hundreds of supporters and…
Governor Dayton’s team has projected a $1.87 billion-dollar surplus. Before anyone pats themselves on the back, recall that there is the not so small matter of a pension deficit. When…
Another train that most Minnesotans have never heard of but will be expected to pay for has left the station. The plan to restart a train between the Twin Cities…
This morning’s Star Tribune has a long article on the growing secrecy surrounding government activities in Minnesota: Train cars loaded with highly flammable oil roll through Minnesota cities every day,…
Town meetings extend CAE’s reach throughout Minnesota
It may not be too late to save freedom of choice at the checkout line in Minneapolis. All Minnesotans’ ability to choose between paper or plastic at their local grocery…
A month before leaving office, President Obama basically banned copper mining in the Superior National Forest in northern Minnesota with a stroke of his pen. The post-election executive order went…
American Experiment generates serious momentum on several levels.
Dozens of local companies tied to the pipeline industry stood their ground yesterday in a hard-hitting news conference aimed squarely at the Duluth City Council. Their beef? A “feel good”…
A Supreme Court decision could shut down the way cities have quietly raised revenues without raising taxes.
Dear Friends, Thanks to friends like you the Center is finishing our best year yet! But we both know the stakes are high and there’s much more work to be done, so the…
Dear Friends, As always, we have much to be grateful for this Thanksgiving. In the tumult of the moment, especially in an election season, it is easy to forget that…
Minnesota’s Constitution imposes some important limitations on a city’s tax power. For several years, the city of St. Paul has imposed a right-of-way assessment on all property owners to fund…
Utilities, regulators and environmentalists make it as difficult as possible to track the real costs of switching over 30 percent of Minnesota’s electrical power generation to wind and solar. Xcel…
Are the right-of-way charges for street maintenance that Minnesota cities charge property owners a tax or a fee? Recently the Minnesota Supreme Court clearly ruled that street maintenance charges are…
It’s a train that only state and county bureaucrats from the Twin Cities to Duluth have been riding for more than a decade now. Northern Lights Express, NLX for short,…
Yesterday the White House released a “Fact Sheet” touting growing incomes, falling poverty, and rising health coverage in Minnesota. The fact sheet clearly aims to bolster the perception that all…
You no doubt have noticed that our website says Center of the American Experiment is “Minnesota’s Think Tank.” We use that phrase a lot–on t-shirts, on the radio, and elsewhere.…
No one blinks anymore when activist city councils pass kooky or feel-good resolutions on the politically correct issue du jour. Potholes, garbage collection and other consequential, but mundane issues should hardly…
Last year Center of the American Experiment decided to get involved in a legal challenge to St. Paul’s right-of-way maintenance fee and filed an amicus brief because we believed the…
Minnesota’s economy faces a turning point. That’s the message of American Experiment’s new report, “Minnesota’s Economy: Mediocre Performance Threatens the State’s Future.” It’s a report with statewide implications, so the Center…
On Monday, the Center will release a comprehensive report on Minnesota’s economy by PhD economist Joseph Kennedy. The report will be announced at press conferences at the Capitol in St.…