The state of Minnesota overtaxed us by $17 billion in the last biennium and is sitting on the surplus. The funds should be returned on a pro rata basis to those of us who were compelled to fork over the dough, but that’s not what state Democrats have in mind, even when they couch their proposals in the language of “rebates.” That much I can tell you.

The Star Tribune has now taken the work of two reporters and 1100 words to create the impression that harm might be done by reimbursing taxpayers. You can’t be too careful. I think it’s safe to say that Kavita Kumar and Jessie Van Berkel pose the most stupid question in the paper today: “Could Minnesota’s proposed rebate checks fuel even higher inflation?”

[Technically, it might push prices a wee bit higher as the rebates stoke demand. After all, we saw that same process in the massive relief payments made during COVID, especially the final and totally unnecessary tranche in Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan. But the real drivers of inflation were the monetary expansions that funded those checks, not the checks themselves, and then the pandemic-shutdown-related supply-chain failures occurring at the same time. A tax rebate in Minnesota is very different. — Ed]