ONE MINNESOTA Rural Equity Project

Event: “Investing in Rural Prosperity”  The Federal Reserve Bank will host “Investing in Rural Prosperity” on Tuesday, May 24 at 1 p.m. ET. The event will “highlight a new framework for advancing shared economic prosperity in rural communities across the United States, initially proposed in "Investing in Rural Prosperity," a new book published by the St. Louis Fed in collaboration with the Federal Reserve Boar... Read More

Legislative updates Before the Minnesota Legislature adjourns this month, we’ll include more legislative updates in these newsletters. From MinnPost, here’s an article on “Six things that could get done at the Minnesota Legislature before the end of the 2022 session.” The issues the article highlights include budget & taxes (the state budget surplus), public safety, drought relief, liquor and gambling bills, Unemploy... Read More

Legislative updates— oversight overkill— your attention, please!  Two pieces of proposed legislation currently moving through the state legislature in the Senate’s State Government and Senate’s Jobs bills would drastically increase government oversight of Minnesota nonprofits. This post from the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits explains the various ramifications for nonprofits throughout the state should the legislat... Read More

All the info you need for our 20th anniversary centralized in one place!  Please remember to register for our 20th anniversary celebration, “Building Shared Prosperity in Minnesota,” happening on April 11th! You can now find all the information for the event (time, registration info, program/agenda, etc.) on our website under the “G & J 20th Anniversary” tab. Hover over the tab for related pages, such as the ful... Read More

You are invited: Growth & Justice celebrates 20 years of good works on April 11! Please SAVE THE DATE and join us on April 11 from 1 to 4 p.m. (via Zoom) to celebrate and honor two decades of Growth & Justice’s research and partnerships to develop and advocate for public policy that makes Minnesota's economy more prosperous and fairer for all Minnesotans. The event features reflections forward through the lenses of the Minneso... Read More

Imagine a nine-year-old boy we’ll call Oliver Anderson – the same age and first name as the plucky urchin immortalized in Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist -- growing up desperately poor in a small farm town in rural northwestern Minnesota. Oliver’s single mom scrapes by on low-wage part-time jobs in town, and sometimes finds seasonal work, but she subsists on an annual income near the official poverty level.   Sur... Read More

A dominant narrative in mainstream and social media suggests our nation and state has lost its sense of community, that partisan and ideological rancor hopelessly divides us, from Congress to our holiday dinner tables, and that we have little interest in helping each other.  A notion that a spirit of meanness pervades our rural regions is particularly prevalent, and indeed there are enough examples of bigotry and xenophobia and disregard for... Read More

Minnesota has been ahead of most other states in recognizing the importance of early childhood education, and investing up front in this priceless human capital.  Currently, thanks to bi-partisan support and strong consensus among business leaders and childhood experts, Minnesota is putting hundreds of millions of dollars more into quality child-care than we were just a decade ago, through a variety of systems.   Yet for all this... Read More

Justin Stofferahn is a policy specialist for the State of Minnesota and is a new Policy Fellow for Growth & Justice. His work focuses on fiscal and economic issues. He also has policy experience from his work in the offices of the Illinois Governor and Lt. Governor.  Economic Concentration in Minnesota The biggest story in economic development right now is the bid to secure Amazon’s second headquarters and the estimat... Read More

Putting Things Back Together A Youth Social Entrepreneurship Case Study By Jeanne Walz, Matt Howard and Dane Smith A little more than a year ago, Ethan (last name withheld at his request) was headed in no particular direction, except perhaps toward trouble.  He lacked motivation, was not doing particularly well in high school, and his scrapes with authorities worried his mother and teachers. His mom -- before signing him up for a specia... Read More