February 28, 2023

Minnesota’s budget surplus grew to $19 billion, but new law requires accounting for inflation

Had Gov. Tim Walz’s budget office presented the latest economic and revenue forecast one week ago, it would have reported a $19 billion revenue surplus. […]
February 27, 2023

State economists: Minnesota finances stable with record-breaking surplus intact

Minnesota’s budget office reported Monday that the state’s record-breaking surplus is slightly less record-breaking than it was in November — that the previous surplus of […]
February 23, 2023

Minnesota Democrats might spend big in bid to fix a struggling child care industry

Hiring and keeping staff has been the greatest challenge for the Stay ’n Play child care centers in Litchfield and Willmar. Pay is typically around […]
February 15, 2023

Downtown Minneapolis population growth slowed in 2022

This story was originally published by Twin Cities Business. The population in downtown Minneapolis is still growing, but it appears to be slowing down. According […]
February 10, 2023

At least 100,000 low-income Minnesotans on Medicaid could lose coverage as federal COVID rules wind down

No one is totally sure how many Minnesotans will lose their health insurance over the next year due to the “unwinding” of COVID-era federal rules […]
February 8, 2023

‘Equity is about money’: St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter on the city’s guaranteed income experiments, home-buying assistance

Since November 2020, the city of St. Paul has launched four separate pilot programs to study what happens when the government sends money to very […]
February 3, 2023

Why Walz wants to spend $276M on broadband on top of nearly $1 billion in federal funds

Renewed interest in public funding to subsidize construction of high-speed internet infrastructure in rural areas since the COVID-19 pandemic began has resulted in gobs of […]
January 25, 2023

Why Budget Day (days, really) was so much fun for Gov. Tim Walz and how surplus spending will make Minnesota history

When a student at a St. Paul grade school last week asked Gov. Tim Walz why he wanted to be governor, he quickly said: “For […]
January 25, 2023

USDA tightens organic rules amid fraud cases like a $46 million alleged scheme by Minnesota farmers

WASHINGTON — James Wolf raised corn, soybeans and wheat on a family farm in Cottonwood County for decades when he did what many Minnesota farmers […]
January 19, 2023

What’s the debt ceiling, anyway? And what happens if Congress doesn’t act?

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government on Thursday reached its borrowing limit of $31.4 trillion, and now a fractious Congress is faced with coming up with […]