Two years of COVID-19

Two years of COVID-19

By Briana Bierschbach

Good morning and happy Monday. We've officially made it through two years of the pandemic in Minnesota, with Sunday marking the anniversary of the first known COVID-19 case in the state. Cases are way down, after omicron's winter surge gave many people some immunity.

But "there will be another variant," Matt Aliota, a University of Minnesota expert in emerging infectious diseases told reporter Jeremy Olson for a weekend story. "It's guaranteed. It's just a matter of when and how severe it will be."

Check out the accompanying bar chart on his story if you really want to relive the highs and lows of the last two years.

On the positive side, Minnesota's finances are somehow not totally wrecked by this. In fact, the state's historic $9.3 billion surplus appears to stand out from its neighbors in the Midwest, reports Jessie Van Berkel.

Management and Budget Commissioner Jim Schowalter tells her it's likely because of the state's tax system. "Our decisionmakers have put together a balanced system that weathered the pandemic really well."

Lawmakers in both parties across the region are proposing tax cuts, but national researchers who focus on state finances are warning against either permanent large cuts or major ongoing spending. From JVB:

State surpluses have been largely propped up by temporarily high tax revenue and one-time federal funds, experts said, at a time of uncertainty about the economic effects of the war in Ukraine, the future of the pandemic, inflation and workforce shortages.