Minnesotans don't have much time for political nonsense. Taxes in Minnesota are not an issue. We have had the highest voter participation percentage of any state for a long time.

This is a great state to live in that cares about its citizens, people with disabilities and children. We also have great schools but we do have a large achievement gap. Another thing that bothers me are some of the inequities across counties. We also have a lack of affordable housing like everyone else does.

With respect to MNLARS you can read the report rather than speculate: https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/dvs/forms-documents/Documents/i...

Ah yes, the "Blue Ribbon Committee" organized by the same people who were responsible for managing the MNLARS project for the past decade. I'm glad there were able to put together this "independent" and completely bias-free review of this project so this can be put to bed.

Get real. I lived in MN most of my life and finally moved last year. I now reside in TX and keep much more of what I make. If you don't smell something fishy with this project and the way MN is managing tax revenue, they've got you fooled.

The politicians will hide behind very noble reasons to request more money from taxpayers. Perhaps there are some true believers, but they are only concerned with empire building, giving high-paying/do nothing jobs to cronies, and maximizing the amount of money flowing through their coffers.

People at all levels of government have few if any incentives to be results-oriented and efficient but are heavily incentivized to request more money, employees, etc. The unfortunate thing is that the people of MN have been easily manipulated via guilt, social justice, etc. into paying well more than their fair share. Maybe guilt is a cultural defect somewhat specific to MN, but it seems that the politicians have been quite good at exploiting it for gain.

> This is a great state to live in...

It _used_ to be a great state to live in. Below average wages, above average taxes. Keep buying into Minnesota exceptionalism and telling yourself that your quality of life is somehow better than other places in the US. It ain't.

> Get real. I lived in MN most of my life and finally moved last year. I now reside in TX and keep much more of what I make. If you don't smell something fishy with this project and the way MN is managing tax revenue, they've got you fooled.

Minnesota manages to keep the lights and heat on in the winter, how’s TX in that regard? You still pay taxes in Texas, just in different ways.

Road salt isn’t a complex delivery of services. It’s a pure commodity.

Large complex procurement fails or needs change orders frequently because they are large and complex. Buyers don’t understand what they want and sellers understand what they are told. More bidders often drive prices up.

Commodities are different. It’s driven by volume and competitive process. If 30 salt miners bid, you’re getting a good price. If 2 bid, your only path to better pricing is to go vertical to control demand. State governments are able to do that for this type of commodity. Supermarkets do the same thing with produce, although that was illegal until recently.

Buying salt is easy but delivering isn't.

I'll take your MN income tax if you'll take my NJ property taxes. Around here a typical middle class home is pushing $20k/yr.

Making direct comparisons among state income taxes is facile without acknowledging the marginalized rates. Do California and Minnesota have high tax rates? Yes, but only for high income individuals. California's highest bracket doesn't kick in until you make over $1MM and Minnesota doesn't until you make over $275k. Iowa's top tax bracket begins at $75k as an example. Someone making $80k per year would pay higher income taxes in Iowa than in Minnesota or California yet strangely the internet isn't full of people ranting about the tax rates in Iowa. If you compare effective tax rates versus median income, California and Minnesota aren't even in the top 20 most expensive tax states.

It's hard to compare because it depends on you and policy.

Unless you have unusually high W-2 income, expensive or large property, etc most of the differences between states are pretty marginal when you net everything out.

Many of the "low tax" states have a catch, whether it be sales tax on food, school funding, high property taxes, local governance that encourages HOA, etc. At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter too much. People complaining about taxes is background radiation.

On the contrary, it really matters in some contexts, like for retirement purposes. Taxation of retirement income can really impact retirees.

Tax policy can also make a huge difference for whether rebalancing a portfolio is even viable.

People in Iowa complain about their tax rates. If you don't live in Iowa, you don't hear about it. Iowa's population is too small to make the news for the most part (except at caucus time, but state taxes are not an issue in the national elections).

I live in Iowa. I've literally heard more people here complain about "Liberal California" tax rates than Iowa tax rates. Generally people just have a poor understanding of how taxation actually works. Most Iowa residents probably have no idea that they pay a higher tax rate they they would in California.

Exactly. I live in New York, which is definatly a high tax state. 51% of income tax revenues come from people making >$700k, and much of that money is transferred to people making <$32k. With refundable credits for children and property taxes, those folks have a near-zero or negative income tax rate.