Minnesota and Wisconsin have been on divergent paths when it comes to economic growth and the states’ polar opposite approaches to investments in education, infrastructure and job creation could be the reason.
That’s according to Minnesota Revenue Commissioner Myron Frans and Larry Jacobs, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for the Study of Politics and Governance, who this week met with Wisconsin’s top tax official Richard Chandler at a forum in Minneapolis.
The Pioneer Press reports that, “Despite its tax cuts, Wisconsin is lagging in job growth, Jacobs noted. From March 2012 to March 2013, the state saw a 1.1 percent increase in private-sector jobs, ranking 34th among the 50 states in job creation, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Minnesota ranked 16th, with 2.1 percent job growth during that period.”
Frans also discussed how increased revenue allowed the state to make critical investments in education, job creation and infrastructure, noting that “The key for us is to get policies where people know the taxes they are paying are making the investments they want to make.”
Read more here.
