Other Taxes and Tax Issues

Our investigations into other state and local taxes as well as important tax-related issues such as tax reform, tax expenditures, and tax incidence.  For background understanding on what constitutes sound tax policy, please see our educational primer "Taxing Decisions Matter: A Citizens Guide to Good Tax Policy".

August 12, 2022

How Does Minnesota’s Fiscal Effort Compare?

Minnesota’s reputation as a high tax state is a function of high rates and collections.  Is our reputation still deserved when factoring in states’ underlying ability to raise revenue?   

February 21, 2022

The Renewed Push to Exempt Social Security

The state’s huge surplus has propelled a full exemption of social security income to the top of many tax relief wish lists.  The numbers may look kindlier on the idea but it remains far better politics than tax policy.

November 04, 2021

Tax Reliability: The State of Minnesota’s “Big Three”

An important and often underappreciated tax policy issue is reliability -- a tax system’s ability to support expenditure programs over the long run and provide dependable streams of revenue even as the characteristics and nature of the underlying economy evolves and varies with the business cycle.