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Fiscal Focus

Fiscal Focus is our bimonthly publication providing news, analysis, and commentary on tax and spending topics in the headlines.


February 24, 2021

January / February 2021

A Closer Look at Minnesota’s Proposed SALT Cap Workaround

Guest contributor, MCFE member, and former Minnesota House of Representatives legislative analyst Joel Michael examines the design, implications, and tax policy issues of a bill allowing pass through business entities to elect to pay state income tax at the entity level and thereby circumvent the federal government’s $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductibility.

Session Odds and Ends

A look at the findings of a couple of recent lower-profile state government reports on tax and fiscal matters of relevance to taxpayers.

January 06, 2021

November / December 2020

The $100 Million Health and Human Service Savings Challenge

With nearly every new dollar of general fund tax revenue in the next biennium currently projected to be consumed by current law health and human service (HHS) spending, what should we expect from the cost-saving efforts of the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Health and Human Services?

Clean Up on Aisle 2021

Federal COVID responses and the usual raft of end of year federal temporary tax provisions have again created a backlog of state tax conformity matters and the prospect of a yet more complicated and expensive tax system.  There is an action we should consider to mitigate this recurring problem.

October 30, 2020

September / October 2020

Finish Line

Resistance to the continuation of the governor’s emergency powers was a formidable obstacle, but rejecting over $2 billion in economic benefits spread across the state entailed its own political risk.

COVID’s Fiscal Footprint

What is COVID’s impact on state and local finances and family financial security?   A National Tax Association publication offers some analysis as well as perspective on what it may mean for any new round of federal support.

Minnesota’s “Must Do” Sits on a Department of Revenue Bookshelf​

Now is absolutely the time for a long-ignored 2011 report from the Department of Revenue to get some renewed attention.