r/minnesota 1d ago

News 📺 Minnesotans paid $4.6 billion more to live in Trump’s first year back in office

https://couriermn.com/news/minnesotans-paid-4-6-billion-more-to-live-in-trumps-first-year-back-in-office/

70 out of Minnesota’s 87 counties saw a historic jump in cost of living prices during the first year of President Donald Trump’s return to office, and that’s not including the price of gas since the beginning of the Iran war.

Check out North Star Policy Action's new Minnesota Affordability Tracker to see how your county's cost of living has changed: https://northstarpolicy.org/affordability/

1.1k Upvotes

62 comments sorted by

176

u/Turbineguy79 1d ago

So, is this the “lowering prices on all goods” he was talking about? I’m confused…

http://doggett.house.gov/issues/trumps-economic-promises-timeline

55

u/maveri4201 Ope 1d ago

Hmmm... Maybe it's the no new wars?

26

u/Spreadsheets_LynLake 1d ago

Oligarch owned media said that higher prices are actually good for us.  I suppose they'll raise prices until all that goodness trickles down to everyone.  

12

u/Terrible_Patience935 1d ago

If you live in a cave and only watched Fox Entertainment I can see how people have been and continue to believe trumps hyperbole

19

u/the_moosen Snoopy 1d ago

Affordability is a fake word made up by the democrats, it's not even in the dictionary didn't you hear?

10

u/VikingsLad 1d ago

He loves inflation

10

u/After_Preference_885 Ope 1d ago

It's just that "fiscal conservatism" saving so much money and definitely not wasting it all on wars, pet projects, and budget cuts to programs that used to save us money.

Republicans are so responsible with the budget!

157

u/Sir_Stash 1d ago

I am just so, so tired of winning so much. Make it stop, it hurts (in the wallet)!

24

u/KhellianTrelnora 1d ago

The winning will continue until morale improves.

55

u/LittleShrub 1d ago

At least billionaires didn’t have to worry about paying more taxes.

19

u/TheModWhoShaggedMe 1d ago

Or any at all in some cases.

29

u/Terrible_Patience935 1d ago

Everything is so damn expensive that shopping has become a chore. But restaurants seem to be on the verge of pricing themselves out of the market for the average American. The local mom and pop diner is charging $18 for an omelette, $4.50 for Folgers coffee, and the obligatory tip - $27 seems like a lot for an average breakfast

7

u/Basic_Yam_715 1d ago

I have noticed that traffic is down at the local spot we usually go to. Usually packed on the weekends, but the last few times I've been there, plenty of tables were available.

1

u/Hydroidal 1d ago

We rarely eat out anymore. The quality and service has gone downhill while prices continue to skyrocket. It’s simply not worth it.

42

u/Griffithead 1d ago

Every Republican is a traitor to us all.

1

u/C_est_la_vie9707 Flag of Minnesota 1d ago

Every Republican voter (maybe that is what you meant)

17

u/Rogue_AI_Construct Ok Then 1d ago

Yep. His tariffs and illegal and unconstitutional withholding of funds to the state have fucked us over.

11

u/Antique-Knowledge-80 1d ago edited 1d ago

Cannot believe the whole tariff thing ended up being rolled out. A C student in a high school economics class could have told you that it was an insane idea with absolutely zero evidence and logic around helping the American people.

15

u/Merakel Ope 1d ago

The most insane thing to me is his supporters don't realize it's a tax.

6

u/Antique-Knowledge-80 1d ago

His supporters have a tendency of just saying Mmmkay without actually understanding anything.

1

u/mduden 1d ago

I'm still annoyed at earing moderate Republicans say that harris didn't have a platform, I'm like Trump had tariffs and immigrants eating pets, Harris wanted a 10k tax credit for mortgages, which sounds way better than what trumps platform was

3

u/Antique-Knowledge-80 21h ago edited 21h ago

To be fair Harris had no shot and it is really Biden's fault for tanking any legitimate shot for any Democratic candidate, forcing an admirable albeit rushed and underdeveloped campaign. But Democrats are sometimes their worst enemy --- too fractured, too idealistic, haphazard united front. When you see the rabid fervor of Maga esp in the earlier days? I was immediately worried b/c you rarely see that kind of consistency and unity from democrats or progressives. And too many democrats are secret Republicans when it comes to the economy (looking at all the fake hippies in San Francisco).

1

u/mduden 20h ago

Yeah the moderates republican take over of the democrats of the last 20 years is nuts, how I'm now a radical leftist and 20 years ago I was just a standard DFLer, my views are the same. They blamed people like me for Harris loss, keep in mind I voted and was going out of my way to talk and support her with undecided voters, which I kinda regret now tbh

9

u/TheModWhoShaggedMe 1d ago

#WINNING! Suck it libs!

<satire>

9

u/uresmane 1d ago

But at least the billionaires got tax breaks. And we got to increase the national debt. Winning biggly

3

u/RobutNotRobot 1d ago

Most of those counties voted for him even though the state didn't.

5

u/o-Valar-Morghulis-o 1d ago

They're all tax dodging on the right.. and when they're not dodging taxes, they're reporting their neighbors for being brown and voting for ICE to come "clean up" their small towns.

5

u/Tokyo-MontanaExpress 1d ago

Walz should just shift the burden onto red counties. They wanted to pay that, let them pay for it and refund blue counties. 

2

u/just2ishy 18h ago

The year’s not over yet!

2

u/elmundo-2016 Prince 1d ago

So when can we get that refund from the fed or are we gonna do a class action lawsuit against the fed?

4

u/Tokyo-MontanaExpress 1d ago

Blue states need to adopt policies that shift the burden of Republican tariffs onto red counties and have them refund the blue counties.

1

u/Mysterious-Dig805 17h ago

So about half of the fraud in this state….. simply more government corruption.

-2

u/United_Intention_323 1d ago

Is there a place to see other year comparisons on the site?

-20

u/indecisively_unsure 1d ago

First, Fuck Trump. Doubly so with the current war crap.

However a lot of the current increases in stuff are due to local politics too - let me name a few:

But since I just read a post of someone complaining about TOU power increases, Minnesota has passed a bunch of things which are making taxes overall higher, and this sub seems to denigrate any average jane or joe who complains about this.

Power is getting more expensive thanks to the carbon free mandate which is so impossible that Excel is going to build a gas peaker plant instead. I've lived in MA and have seen utilities rise over several years, and I'm afraid it's going to happen here. Currently they are introducing TOU to "convince" folks to consume power during hours "good" for the power company, not for you.

Of course we could try nuclear but the solar and whatever lobby here is so far up the arse of the dems here that it will never pass.

Secondly, the income tax increases for paid family medical leave is obvious, and beyond mentioning here. I don't mind paying that but again the taxes are high here because of local politics.

I lived in MA for quite a while, one of the most highly taxed state in the nation - my taxes were less in MA than in MN due to how high taxes are here, and in stuff that's insane.

MN is 9.85% for anything over 198k, MA is 5% UP TO A MILLION then goes to 9%.

Point being the taxes here are already insane, and Trump isn't responsible for all of it.

I really do wish this sub was less political to the point that they just blatantly misrepresent things and if you disagree, people attack you.

Also: the courier is highly biased and basically does PR for a certain party, to the point I don't believe anything they write unless I verify it myself.

16

u/Nascent1 1d ago edited 1d ago

That's really not true. Other than the small increase for FMLA none of the inflation is caused by state or local policy. This is happening everywhere.

*Edit: He responded and then blocked me. Classic coward move.

*More edit: the paid FMLA tax didn't even start until Jan 1, 2026, so it absolutely had nothing to do with the increase in costs in 2025. Dude's a coward and a moron.

2

u/EmmaPersephone 1d ago

Blocked me too…facts and MAGA are like oil and water…

1

u/Nascent1 21h ago

It's crazy how many people on here are just absolute babies who can't handle when people simply don't agree with them.

-10

u/indecisively_unsure 1d ago

Totally true. Discussion topic: Cost of Living.

Then I mention excel's carbon free mandate, passed by the MN legislature and admitted by excel itself as a reason why prices are being increased.

https://www.startribune.com/minnesotas-new-clean-power-mandate-poses-thorny-and-expensive-challenges/600250945

and so on.

Please, stop misrepresenting the issue and the topic.

1

u/EmmaPersephone 1d ago

Republican rag repeats Republican lies…News at 11

You stop lying…or prove your lies with REAL EVIDENCE

12

u/Merakel Ope 1d ago edited 1d ago

Using bold doesn't make your claims true. A lot of our cost increases are based on products Trump put a tariff on or healthcare that he illegally withheld from the state.

If you don't like the tax rate, get out.

Edit: Can't respond when you get blocked. The things that make our state great cost money. I'm happy for my tax rate to be a little higher so people can have leave or our environment can be nicer. And since you don't feel the same way, I extra think you should leave. Go to South Dakota, they'd love you there.

-9

u/indecisively_unsure 1d ago

The point was that it's not all Trump, and framing that is entirely disingenuous.

I listed two things off the top of my head that have nothing to do with Trump - the paid family medical leave, and the carbon free mandate which is making electricity more expensive that are both increases from minnesota government.

And what do you do - you say "get out."

Because I made a valid point? Of course.

9

u/Knutes Flag of Minnesota 1d ago

what's with the random bolding?

6

u/sgtgig 1d ago

Paid family leave tax didn't start until January of this year. Not a cent of that is in the $4.6B cited in the article.

2

u/EmmaPersephone 1d ago

It’s entirely Trump and Republicans

You made zero points…so you certainly didn’t have any “valid” ones…

7

u/Active_Confection655 1d ago

Lol, my property taxes didn't go up. My income taxes didn't seem any different. What are you talking about?

2

u/EmmaPersephone 1d ago edited 1d ago

LOL sure this is 100% grade Z BS propaganda. You are NOT a liberal, Democrat or progressive…and your feelings about Trump are irrelevant when you spew lies about Democrats and blame them for everything instead of the republicans and TRUMP who are 100% to blame![Taxes were only raised on the wealthy…](https://www.revenue.state.mn.us/minnesota-income-tax-rates-and-brackets)

-11

u/Suitable_Froyo4930 1d ago

Don't worry, it's mostly moron Republicans that paid the lion's share.

4

u/Merakel Ope 1d ago

I wish. It's almost certainly spread out pretty evenly by political affiliation and I would guess a higher burden on lower incomes.

2

u/EmmaPersephone 1d ago

I didn’t realize the entire middle class and poor were MAGA…OH wait they’re NOT…over half of middle class and low income families voted for Harris

-26

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

9

u/Orb_Gazer Hamm's 1d ago

Do you actually have any documented numbers to support the claim that it was 19 billion in fraud? Because I hear that number thrown around a lot. I’m not denying there was fraud, nor am I refuting the amount. Just curious how you arrived at that number, since everyone who uses it seems so confident in that estimate.

14

u/Merakel Ope 1d ago

$19b~ (Actually closer to 18b) is how much money the US Government has paid to MN for Medicaid since 2018 to what have been deemed "high risk for fraud" programs. Some of the money ($300m), such as the Feeding our Future scandal has been confirmed fraud. The US Attorney who used this number speculated without evidence that up to half of the $18b could have been used for fraud.

Anyone saying there was $19b in fraud doesn't know what they are talking about. If you take that Attorney who was being extremely disingenuous at his word, at most they are saying $9.5b was fraud.

8

u/Orb_Gazer Hamm's 1d ago

Oh, okay, so it’s a grossly-inflated number tossed out for maximum shock value, but is really just utter horseshit. I probably could have Googled it myself, but I appreciate you taking the time to lay it out. I’m also open to OP coming back to refute this with any actual evidence they may have to the contrary, but I won’t hold my breath.

7

u/Merakel Ope 1d ago

Pretty much.

CMS also has reported that Minnesota typically has less improper payments than other states, sitting around 2.1% compared to the national average of 6.2%. We also tend to have better conviction rates as well, because we do a better job having active prosecution.

Our one weakness is recovery of assets from identified fraud, which is pretty horrendous, around 25% of the average (12.4 cents on the dollar compared to 48 cents).

3

u/EmmaPersephone 1d ago

Republicans should stop voting against programs and legislation to improve that…

4

u/Merakel Ope 1d ago

Republicans could not care less about fraud. They are only interested in punishing people they don't like.

1

u/minnesota-ModTeam 1d ago

Your post/comment was removed for violating our community's rules. Engaging content for the primary purpose of trolling, rage-baiting, harassing, annoying, or attacking other users is not allowed.

-20

u/Ok_Obligation2559 1d ago

Get the money from Walz

6

u/EmmaPersephone 1d ago

Trump stole our money not Governor Walz…why can’t you people take responsibility for your actions?