Good morning. A barnburner for Vikings fans in Vegas.
The head of the Minnesota Republican Party is the same guy who had the job before. GOP Chair David Hann and his allies handily defeated an effort to remove him during the party’s State Central Committee meeting. A faction tried to depose him over continued struggles with party finances and lack of ballot-box success. Republican strategist Jennifer DeJournett live tweeted the proceedings if you want a blow-by-blow, including Hann putting his hotel receipts on screen to contest claims of excessive spending. Removal could have caused unwanted upheaval headed into 2024. The party is still in search of a credible U.S. Senate candidate but will mainly be focused on winning a state House majority and competing for congressional seats.
Coming soon: A new tool to ease conversation with people you have political disagreements with. MPR’s Catharine Richert has been working to create and launch an app-based platform that aims to minimize the impact political divisions can have on our treasured relationships. She’ll discuss Talking Sense further on Dec. 19 on MPR at 9 a.m. Tune in for that and count on more from Catharine on the radio and in live events throughout the next year.
It’s a big week for flag proceeding followers. The State Emblems Redesign Commission plans to meet tomorrow and maybe Friday with a goal of getting at least the concept for a new Minnesota banner settled. Remember, there are six finalists. Those were on display in full form over the weekend at the Mall of America. MPR’s Nicole Ki was there . There aren’t as many flag fan club members as passionate about the exercise as Lee Herold, a flag story owner who has been agitating for a new one for many years. Check out Catharine Richert’s story about him.
Click here, if nothing else, for the photos of some nasty looking carp. MPR’s Kirsti Marohn has been reporting for years on the efforts to keep the invasive species in check. She writes in a new piece that last session the Legislature approved $1.72 million for the DNR to address invasive carp, far short of the nearly $17 million the Stop Carp Coalition had sought. And Kirsti says “the recent capture of more than 300 invasive carp in the Mississippi River near Trempealeau, Wis. — by far, the biggest single catch so far upstream — has renewed calls for stronger efforts to stop the problematic fish.”
And for something completely different, a quick rewind to the release of the state’s economic forecast last week. Those announcements tend to get coverage around surplus or deficit estimates, but the reports are chock full of interesting economic stats that drive those fiscal metrics. I’ve picked out a some that caught my eye from the 87-page report: Nagging inflation is subsiding, if slowly. For 2023, it’s expected to come in around 4 percent but that’s on course to drop to 2.7 percent next year and to just above 2 percent by 2025 and beyond. What we’re buying is telling. In the pandemic, people were unsurprisingly buying things over services and activities. That’s kept up, with spending on goods outperforming expectations, including durable items. Surging sales tax receipts reflect the pattern. Wage growth is picking up. Average income growth was coming in around 2.7 percent this year, but it’s on pace to top 4 percent in each of the next four years. Combine that with the inflation falloff, and the extra paycheck money goes further. The labor market remains exceedingly tight but job growth is tapering. For the current year, data show that total payroll employment expanded by about 61,000 jobs. The figure is forecast to be 17,000 in 2024 and nearly flat the year after. If the actual numbers match the predicted trends, annual average growth from 2023 to 2027 would be well below the growth rate of the 2010s. It is attributed partly to an aging workforce naturally shifting into retirement. The housing market is challenged on multiple fronts. High interest rates are making it tougher for first-time buyers and creating a disincentive for existing owners to turn over properties (year-to-date sales through October were 18.4 percent lower than the prior year). This year, Minnesota’s “affordability index” hit its worst point since data tracking began in 1991 — meaning it has become difficult for the median house to afford a median priced home. Building permits are lagging prior years and are forecast to be somewhat stagnant for the years ahead. | 