
© Jim Mone/Associated PressMinnesota Gov. Mark Dayton smiles at a question as he addressed a news conference after state officials presented the upcoming 2016-17 Minnesota budget forecast, Friday, Feb. 27, 2015, in St. Paul, Minn.
Since 2011, Minnesota has been doing quite well for itself.
The state has created more than 170,000 jobs, according to the
Huffington Post. Its
unemployment rate stands at 3.6% — the
fifth-lowest in the country, and far below the nationwide rate of
5.7% — and
the state government boasts a budget surplus of $1 billion. Forbes considers Minnesota one of the top 10 in the country for business.
Given that Minnesota's governor is a well-connected
millionaire whose family
controls the Target fortune, one could be forgiven for thinking this was the result of embracing the corporate world. But in fact, over the past four years, the state has undergone a series of policy reforms that most of the corporate world decries:
It has imposed higher taxes on the wealthy and raised the minimum wage.When each of these progressive policies was initially proposed, Minnesota Republicans made
dire predictions about their effects on the economy, and argued that bleeding-heart concerns about economic fairness would stifle growth. Despite all the warnings, Minnesota's economy hasn't tanked. Instead, it's sailing with greater force than it has in years.
How Minnesota did itThe progressive economic policies in the North Star State came into being after the election of Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton. In 2010, Dayton surprised many political observers in Minnesota when he managed to win the governor's mansion, the first Democrat to seize it in more than two decades. His political career up until that point was mainly
defined by failure, despite the fact that he was a billionaire heir with countless resources.
Dayton's margin of victory wasn't impressive, but he was eventually able to make a dramatic mark on the direction of the state's public policies. He instituted a wide variety of progressive policies that rendered him the "most liberal governor in the country in terms of his willingness to raise taxes and to spend," University of Minnesota political scientist Larry Jacobs
told Mother Jones.
In the last few years, Minnesota took a number of measures to make its taxation and wages more progressive.
Mother Jones reports that Dayton targeted the top 2% with a tax raise — "one of the largest hikes in state history." Corporate taxes
increased. The state income tax on the highest earners increased to 9.85% in 2013, making it the fourth highest in the nation, according to the
Tax Foundation.
Comment: Federal employees who don't pay taxes would be fired under bill that passed committee Hey, IRS! Ignorance of the law is no excuse!