Thanks for the 538 link. Hadn’t seen those ratings before. Not sure there is much evidence that Michigan has had corrupt spending in transportation and education, even revenue sharing that are important to future economic growth. What we have had for two decades is a belief that lower taxes mattered more than those kind of investments to growing the economy. Minnesota took––and is still taking––the opposite path. The results are pretty clear who has and is doing better. Despite all the predictions of a Minnesota collapse.

Agreed. What is most noteworthy about Minnesota is not their recent tax increase. But that for the last two decades while nearly every other state has been cutting taxes supposedly to grow the economy they didn’t cut taxes. Somehow they have kept a bipartisan commitment to making public investments rather than giving away their tax base. That over the long run has served the people of Minnesota very well.

“First, there is always a chance that the state government could be irresponsible or incompetent, squandering or wasting the additional tax dollars.”

Here’s a good guide to the likelihood of that scenario: http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/ranking-the-states-from-most-to-least-corrupt/

Michigan could definitely raise income taxes; Minnesota collects more than $2 billion more despite having a little more than half of Michigan’s population.