Economics and Government Finance

Minnesota Information

• Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis - The Fed provides a useful inflation calculator, as well as publications, and economic research and data.
• Fiscal Notes - The Legislative Budget Office provides detailed information on the fiscal implications of proposed legislation.
• Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development - Track Minnesota economic and employment data at the Labor Market Information part of the Department of Employment and Economic Development's website.
• Minnesota Management & Budget - This site contains a lot of economic and budget information including the February 2023 Budget & Economic Forecast and the January 2023 Revenue Review and links to the Minnesota State Budget page.
• Minnesota House of Representatives Fiscal Analysis Department - A variety of fiscal data including revenue and expenditure summaries. Recent issues of their invaluable publication, Money Matters, include A Glossary of Fiscal Terms and Acronyms and Fiscal Notes.
• Minnesota Issues Resource Guide: State Budget - A compilation of resources to guide you through the state budget process.
• Minnesota Senate Counsel, Research and Fiscal Analysis - The fiscal analysts produce the award-winning Fiscal Review, budget tracking spreadsheets, and bill summaries.
• Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor - The OLA conducts financial and compliance audits of state agencies and program evaluations of state and local governmental functions. Both the Program Evaluation Division publications and the Financial Audit publications are available in full text.
• Office of the State Auditor - "The Office of the State Auditor oversees more than $40 billion in local government spending."

Federal and State Government Information

• Annual Survey of State Government Finances - The Census Bureau's summary pages for government finances for each state.
• Bureau of Economic Analysis - "BEA is the Nation's accountant, integrating and interpreting a tremendous volume of data to draw a complete and consistent picture of the U.S. economy."
• Bureau of Labor Statistics - BLS "is the principal Federal agency responsible for measuring labor market activity, working conditions, and price changes in the economy." Check out TED: The Economics Daily, a daily snapshot of an interesting statistic. BLS measures prices changes through indexes such as the Consumer Price Index.
• Congressional Budget Office - The CBO publishes useful cost estimates and full-text reports for Congress.
• 2017 Economic Census - The 2017 Economic Census -- produced every five years -- and earlier economic censuses are available from the Census Bureau.
• Federal, State, and Local Governments - The U.S. Census Bureau provides extensive government finance data.
• FedStats - Publicly available statistics from more than 100 Federal agencies. The Federal Interagency Council on Statistical Policy maintains this website.
• The Fiscal Link - Fiscal information from the National Conference of State Legislatures. The site links to a number of helpful reports and links to other legislative fiscal office sites.
• GAO (General Accounting Office) - Search the full text of GAO reports published since the beginning of FY 1995.
• National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO) - The NASBO website includes their useful reports: Budget Processes in the States 2021, Fiscal Survey of States, Capital Budgeting in the States, and State Expenditure Report 2021.
• Office of Management and Budget - Go directly to the Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2022 and the 2021 Economic Report of the President.
• Regional Input-Output Modeling System (RIMS II) -- Local area economic data for states, counties, and metropolitan areas including personal income by source, per-capita personal income, earnings by two-digit SIC code, and other statistics.
• U.S. Department of the Treasury - The Internal Revenue Service posts tax forms and publications.

Other Information

• Consumer Price Indexes -The Bureau of Labor Statistics' CPI for the United States city average. Go to Midwest Economy: Consumer Prices to get to regional information including the current Minneapolis-St. Paul CPI. To get Minneapolis-St. Paul CPI figures over time, select Minneapolis-St. Paul from the list of cities on the Midwest Economy page or select "create customized tables" on the main CPI page.
• What's a Dollar Worth? - The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis has developed a quick way to calculate what an item was worth at another point in time. It uses the CPI-U for the United States.
• Global Financial Data - A comprehensive collection of current and historical financial data including interest rates, inflation, and the stock market.
• Universal Currency Converter - Find out exchange rates between countries in a flash.

The sites listed on this page are not created, maintained, or endorsed by the Minnesota Legislature.