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There are many signs that Minnesota’s quality of life is slipping:
- For the first time in decades, Minnesota’s economy is underperforming the national average.
- In 2007, Minnesota ranked 50 out of 50 states in job creation. This is a sharp reversal of a longstanding trend of higher-than-average job growth in the state.
- The median (50th percentile) wage for all Greater Minnesota job openings is $9 per hour. In a Greater Minnesota family of four with both parents working each worker must earn at least $10.58 per hour to meet basic needs.
- Minnesota hasn’t had a major infusion of cash for its highways in more than 20 years. The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) has been forced to borrow funds to pay for highway expansion projects, while needed repairs on existing roadways have gone begging. MnDOT’s project spending shifted beginning in 2003 and is not in line with its stated priorities.
- There has been a shift away from using state income taxes to local property taxes in the past six years to meet our communities’ needs. Minnesota had a $2.7 billion increase in property taxes since 2002. Statewide property taxes amounted to $4.5 billion in 2002, and are now at $7.2 billion. About $1.2 billion of transportation costs are being funded by property taxes.
- Minnesota ranks 37th in access to public early childhood education.
- Almost half the workforce ages 25 – 34 lacks at least a two-year college degree, the minimum required to find good jobs in a global, knowledge-based economy.
- Since 2002, tuition collected by Minnesota’s public colleges and universities has more than doubled, as state funding for higher ed has declined faster than the national average.
For more information about what is happening in Minnesota, go to:
Minnesota Budget Project
Minnesota Council of Nonprofits
Minnesota AFL-CIO
Minnesota Joint Religious Coalition
Growth & Justice
Jobs Now Coalition
Minnesota at Mid-Decade report
Economic benefits of early childhood development
Minnesota’s Infrastructure Report Card
The share of Minnesotans’ income that goes to state and local taxes and fees has dropped from where it was in the mid-‘90s. That drop has resulted in several billion dollars a year less for education, health care, public infrastructure, and the environment.
Minnesota thrived when we invested more in our economy outperformed the nation’s economy. However, the past eight years – the period in which we cut taxes substantially as compared to other states – we have simply become an average economy, or even worse
The Invest in Minnesota Campaign does not believe that lower taxes are worth being average.
More information -
Toward a More Competitive State
The Campaign for a Better Budget Process in Minnesota
For most Minnesotans, fairness manes people pay in proportion to their incomes. Right now, the people with the highest incomes are not paying their proportional share of taxes and fees because their incomes have grown much faster than average. As a result, the revenue system hasn’t kept up with the economy’s real ability to pay for the services and investments Minnesotan’s want.
Raising more money doesn’t mean it comes out of the pockets of families who can’t afford to pay more. As the Invest in Minnesota Campaign believes that a good guideline to use when pushing for more revenue is to support tax policies that close the gap between top earners and the rest of taxpaying households.
More information -
The state's report on the Price of Government
Studies debunk anti-tax myths
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Minnesota is still a great state. Why should we invest more? 
But, it doesn’t feel like I’m paying less today.