Let us be very honest about what has happened to Minnesota during the last 16 years of whacked Dem governors. Our state has gone down the toilet. Our once-vaunted education system is worse than that of most southern states. Our government spending, state and local, has grown far faster than our economy. Businesses and high income individuals have fled the state, replaced by illegal immigrants that are a drain on public finances. We have high rates of alcoholism and drug abuse. We are a large state geographically but the vast part of the state outside the Twin Cities is ignored in public policy. And as we all know, we are taxed like we live in California and those taxes continue to rise rapidly. A ranking of the total tax burden by state places Minnesota at a total income, property and sales tax rate of 9.7%, 11th worst in the country. What the analysis doesn’t include is our outrageously high fees, like for car registrations, garbage collections, etc. or our very, very high estate taxes.
Our neighbor Wisconsin is below average in tax burden, in 32nd place at 8.3%. Somehow Florida, which I am personally familiar with and which has great schools and great services, is down at 6.5% and 45th place. The Fat Timmy administration is largely responsible for the swift rise of Minnesota up the rankings, as he has increased every kind of tax as fast as he can and wants to raise taxes again this session. (WH Study)
