Citizens League

The central question:
Is it possible for Minnesota to structure its state and local revenue gathering to simultaneously strengthen the state's economy AND ensure that the burden of financing the state's government services are more equally shared?

This is the question that Growth & Justice has been posing in their Tax/Revenue Project through research and a series of roundtable discussions with Minnesota citizens and tax experts held throughout the year. Growth & Justice has developed a proposal for reforming the state and local revenue system in Minnesota to accomplish this goal.

The proposal includes raising more money from the income tax, from high-income households, while reducing the tax burden on business to foster a good business climate. Lowering business taxes also can improve fairness, because businesses pass along much of their tax burdens to consumers and employees in a manner that hits lower- and middle-income Minnesotans harder than the wealthy.