(2016) No More Business As Usual PDF

NO MORE BUSINESS AS USUAL
How the State's Most Powerful Corporations Have

Fostered Minnesota's Racial Wealth Gap
(and What Can Be Done About It)
February 2016
1
Minnesotans for a Fair Economy
Minnesotans for a Fair Economy -- "No More Business As Usual"
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Table of Contents
I. Executive Summary ......................................................................................................... 4
II. Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 5
III. The Racial Wealth Gap.................................................................................................... 8
A. Income/ Unemployment ............................................................................................... 10
Corporate Impact .................................................................................................. 12
B. Homeownership/ Debt ................................................................................................. 20
Corporate Impact ................................................................................................. 24
Payday Lending .................................................................................................... 26
C. Education ....................................................................................................................... 28
Corporate Impact .................................................................................................. 31
IV. Environment/ Health.................................................................................................. 40
V. Recommendations .......................................................................................................... 43
Income/Unemployment .................................................................................................. 43
Homeownership/ Debt ................................................................................................... 44
Education ........................................................................................................................... 45
Environment/ Health ......................................................................................................... 46
Reparations ........................................................................................................................ 46
VI. About ................................................................................................................................ 47
VII. Endnotes ......................................................................................................................... 48
The 1% vs. Democracy in Minnesota
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I. Executive Summary
The Twin Cities are consistently listed as one of the best places to live in the U.S., yet for people of
color, it is one of the worst. Minnesota has some of the largest racial disparities in the country and
the widest Racial Wealth Gap.1
At the same time, the Twin Cities are home to more corporate headquarters per capita than
anywhere in the nation. Many of these are recognizable companies such as US Bank, Target, Best
Buy, General Mills, and 3M. These corporations have contributed to creating Minnesota's racial
disparities and have the power to reduce these disparities.
There are three main factors that have been identified as being responsible for creating the Racial
Wealth Gap -- 1) Income/Unemployment, 2) Homeownership/Debt, and 3) Education.2
1) Income/ Unemployment: In Minnesota in 2014 the median household income was $27,000
for African-Americans, $42,000 for Latinos, and $64,800 for whites.3
o As the largest private sector employers in the state, Minnesota's most powerful
corporations have a direct impact on unemployment and poverty rates for people of
color in the state. Minnesota's largest corporations further impact families of color
financially by using their political power to influence public policy on issues such as
minimum wage, paid sick days, and family leave.
2) Homeownership/Debt: Minnesota has the largest homeownership gap in the U.S. with 77%
of white families owning their home, compared to 26% of Blacks and 42% of Latinos.4
o The racially discriminatory mortgage lending practices of banks, charging higher rates
and fees on mortgages to people of color, stripped neighborhoods of their wealth and
led to widespread foreclosures. Banks need to do their part to help a new generation of
families become homeowners.
o Banks have also pumped hundreds of millions of dollars in capital into payday lending,
an industry that has particularly harmed African-Americans by trapping them in
unending cycles of debt.
3) Education: Just 16 percent of African-American and 19 percent of Latino adults in Minnesota
have four year college degrees, compared to 33 percent of whites.
o There has been a big reduction in corporate tax revenue, which has led to a decline in
state aid to K-12 and higher education. In order to make up for this loss, schools have
had to cut costs and take on additional debt. Higher education institutions have had to
increase tuition, forcing more students to take out loans.
o After their actions left public schools underfunded and in debt, these same
corporations criticize the public schools for not being successful enough, and they
advocate for applying business principles to education, such as cutting costs by using
less experienced teachers.
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II. Introduction
African-Americans and Latinos in Minnesota face staggeringly high rates of poverty and
unemployment and unacceptably low rates of high school graduation and homeownership,
while having to live with unhealthy environmental conditions. These are some of the main
factors which contribute to the enormous Racial Wealth Gap.
In 2013, the net worth of white households was 13 times greater than that of Black
households and 10 times greater than Latino households. This means that for every $1
owned by the average white household, Black households have just eight cents and
Latinos have ten cents.
The current Racial Wealth Gap has deep roots in American
History. Slavery generated the profits and wealth that
helped establish some of the largest modern corporations.
For instance, Wachovia Bank (now part of Wells Fargo)
owned slaves, accepted them as collateral on loans, and
acquired them when customers defaulted on their loans. 5
The ideology of white supremacy and black inferiority was
developed to justify the ownership and extreme inhumane
treatment of human beings. The ideology of racism also
served to divide poor whites from black slaves. Poor whites
saw themselves as part of the same class as the rich slavemaster based on their race.
The unemployment rate for

African-Americans in
Minnesota is almost four
times higher than for
whites.
Even after slavery was formally abolished, AfricanAmericans in many states were prohibited from owning
property and could only work in certain occupations.6 After
slavery was abolished, the ideology of white supremacy kept African-Americans as a source of
cheap labor, and groups like the Ku Klux Klan terrorized African-Americans to keep them from
trying to improve conditions. During this time, more prisons were built and prisoners, many of
whom were ex-slaves, were leased out to business owners. Prison labor reproduced slavery-like
conditions.
Corporate profits require a "reserve army" of labor made up of unemployed and underemployed
in order to keep wages down, and African-Americans have often been made to serve in this
army. The jobless rate for African-Americans in Minnesota is almost four times higher than for
whites.7
The factors that created this inequity and that have allowed it to continue to exist are examples of
how structural racism has become deeply embedded in American society. Over time, public policies
and institutional practices have developed that routinely advantage white people while having
adverse outcomes for people of color. As a result of structural racism, Minnesota has some of
the largest racial disparities in the country in education, housing, income and heath.
Corporations in Minnesota have an impact on these issues directly as the state's largest employers
and mortgage lenders and indirectly as leaders in associations that advocate and lobby on public
policy regarding these issues. Instead of using their influence and clout to address racial inequality,
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these corporations have banded together to protect corporate profits, enrich the wealthiest
Minnesotans, and keep communities of color exploited and impoverished. Their actions widen,
rather than close, the racial wealth gap.
The Twin Cities are home to more corporate headquarters per capita than anywhere in the nation. There is
a network of twelve of the largest corporations in Minnesota whose executives sit on each other's boards,
as shown below:
These companies have an impact on the three main factors that have been identified as being
responsible for creating the Racial Wealth Gap -- 1) Income/ Unemployment; 2)
Homeownership/ Debt; and 3) Education. 8 These factors will be examined throughout this
report.
1) Income/ Unemployment: As the largest private sector employers in the state,
Minnesota's most powerful corporations have a direct impact on unemployment
and poverty rates for people of color. Target, with almost 30,000 employees in
Minnesota, is the largest low-wage employer in the state and pays cashiers just
$9/hour.
Minnesota's largest corporations further impact families of color financially by
using their political power to influence public policy on issues such as minimum
wage, paid sick days, and family leave.
2) Homeownership/Debt: The racially discriminatory mortgage lending
practices of banks, charging higher rates and fees on mortgages to people of
color, stripped neighborhoods of their wealth. In 2012, Wells Fargo entered
into a $224 million settlement to resolve claims of steering AfricanAmericans and Latinos into higher cost subprime mortgages even though
they qualified for lower cost prime loans.9
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Homeowners in North Minneapolis who managed to avoid foreclosure saw the

value of their properties nosedive. North Minneapolis property values took a
much bigger hit than other city neighborhoods and still haven't recovered to
even near their pre-recession levels. In North Minneapolis homes are worth
over 20% less than they were ten years ago.10
Mortgage lenders need to do more to help families of color become new
homeowners. Although neighborhoods where people of color make up more
than half the population account for almost 13% of the Twin Cities metro
area, they received just 2% of the purchase loans from US Bank.
Wells Fargo and US Bank have also pumped hundreds of millions of dollars
in capital into payday lending, an industry that has particularly harmed
African-Americans by trapping them in unending cycles of debt.
With fewer family economic resources than white students, Black and Latino
students are forced to work more hours and take on more student loan
debt.11
3) Education: There has been a big reduction in corporate tax revenue,
which has led to a decline in state aid to K-12 and higher education. In order
to make up for this loss, schools have had to cut costs and take on additional
debt. Higher education institutions have had to increase tuition, forcing
more students to take out loans. Wells Fargo is the largest private student
lender in the country.
Changes in state law have resulted in corporations paying lower Minnesota
state income and property tax rates than they did previously. In addition,
many corporations have used offshore tax havens and loopholes to avoid
paying their fair share. Xcel Energy and 3M each avoided paying over $2.2
billion in taxes from 2008 to 2012.
Minnesota corporations are working aggressively to lower their taxes even
more. One of their current legislative priorities is to get rid of the state
property tax on businesses. This would be a windfall for the biggest
businesses. For instance, Best Buy would save almost $4 million annually
and Medtronic would save almost $3 million.
After their actions left public schools underfunded and in debt, these same
corporations criticized the public schools for not being successful enough,
and they advocate for applying business principles to education, such as
cutting costs by using less experienced teachers.
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III. The Racial Wealth Gap

There is an enormous racial wealth gap in the U.S., and it is growing larger.
Wealth is the sum of all assets (such as a home, bank accounts, stocks, and retirement plans)
minus liabilities (such as mortgages, credit card balances, car loans, student loan, and medical
bills owed).
All families need some degree of wealth for their economic security. It serves as a financial
safety net to help when families are faced with unexpected expenses or loss of income. Wealth
also allows families to invest in their future by helping to pay for higher education, buying a
home, or starting a business.
Transfers of wealth through
inheritances
or
gifts
improves the prospects of
the next generation. Since
households of color have
less wealth than white
families, they are not able to
pass along anywhere near as
much money to their
children, thus perpetuating
the racial wealth gap from
one generation to the next.12
In 2013, the net worth

of white households
was 13 times greater
than that of black
households and 10
times greater than
Latino
households.
This means that for
every $1 owned by the
average
white
household,
black
households have just
eight cents and Latinos
have ten cents.
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The median wealth of white households in 2013 was $141,900, up 2% from 2010, while
the median wealth of Black households fell 34% from $16,600 to $11,000. For Latinos,
the median wealth decreased 14% from $16,000 to $13,700.13
The Racial Wealth Gap is Getting Bigger.
There are three main factors that have been identified as being responsible
for creating the racial wealth gap -- 1) Income/ Unemployment 2)
Homeownership/Debt, and 3) Education.14
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A. Income/ Unemployment
Minnesota has the fifth largest gap between white and Black household
income in the country.15
Household income for AfricanAmericans in Minnesota dropped 14%
from $31,500 in 2013 to $27,000 in
2014, putting Minnesota behind
Mississippi.16 The median income for
white households in Minnesota rose to
$64,800, and household income for
Latinos in 2014 stayed about the same
from 2013 at $42,000.17
Minnesota has the third largest disparity in poverty rates between AfricanAmericans and whites.18 The poverty rate for African-Americans in Minnesota in 2014
rose from 33% to 38%.19 The poverty rate for Latinos was 23% and for whites it was just
8%.20 The disparity between child poverty rates is even greater. Almost half (45%) of Black
children live in poverty as do more than a quarter (29%) of Latino children, compared to just
nine percent of white children.21
What are the drivers of these huge income gaps?

Minnesota has the third highest unemployment gap in the U.S.
between African-Americans and whites, behind only Washington, DC
and Wisconsin.22 The jobless rate for African-Americans in Minnesota is almost
four times higher than for whites.23
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Workers of color in Minnesota are also more likely than white

workers to be underemployed. More than one in four Black and Latino
part-time workers are involuntary part-time and want to work full-time,
compared to one in seven white part-time workers.24
Workers of color in Minnesota are more heavily concentrated

in low-wage industries. Thirty percent of Black workers and thirty-five
percent of Latino workers in Minnesota are in service jobs, compared to just
fifteen percent of white workers.25 In contrast, twenty percent of white
workers in Minnesota are in the business/financial industries, compared to
just seven and six percent of Black and Latino workers respectively.
People of color make up about 16% of all jobs in the Twin Cities, but almost 40% of
the personal care attendant (PCA) and home health aide positions and over a third of
the janitor positions.26
Most common jobs worked by people of color in the Twin Cities27
Position
PCAs
Food Preparation Workers
Janitors
Retail Salespersons
Nursing and Home Health Aides
Cooks
Customer Service Representatives
Waitress
Maids and housekeepers
Stockclerks
Number of jobs held by

people of color
23,580
19,770
14,470
12,190
11,460
10,730
9,290
8,220
7,590
7,210
Median hourly
wage
$10.84
$8.87
$11.89
$9.86
$11.33
$11.19
$16.90
$8.56
$10.13
$11.60
African-Americans in Minnesota are eleven times more likely than

whites to be in jail.28 This enormous disparity cannot be explained by
differing crime rates. Racial bias has been well documented, particularly in
the areas of traffic stops and drug enforcement.29 Hiring policies that
automatically exclude job applicants based on the existence of a criminal
record disproportionately impact African-Americans.
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Incarceration Rates by Race/Ethnicity, 201030
Workers of color in Minneapolis are less likely than white workers to

be covered by paid sick time. Just a third (32%) of Latino workers and half
(51%) of Black workers in Minneapolis have paid sick time, compared to
almost two-thirds (63%) of white workers.31
Workers of color are also more likely to be subject to schedules that can
change with little advance notice, that are set with limited employee
input, and that fluctuate widely from week to week. These practices are
particularly rampant in the fast food, retail, hospitality, and restaurant
industries. Forty-nine percent of Black workers and forty-seven percent of
Latino workers receive their schedule with a week or less notice, compared
with thirty-nine percent of white workers.32 Workers of color also have far
less control over the hours they work.
Corporate Impact
Corporations in Minnesota have an impact on employment and poverty rates for people of
color both as the largest employers in the state and as leaders in associations that wield
political clout to influence public policy on these issues.
There is a network of twelve of the largest corporations in Minnesota whose executives sit on
each other's boards: 3M, Best Buy, Delta, Ecolab, General Mills, Medtronic, Polaris,
Target, UnitedHealth, US Bank, Wells Fargo, and Xcel Energy.
Some of those connections are:
- Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf is on the board of Target.
- Target CEO Brian Cornell is on the board of Polaris.
- Polaris CEO Scott Wine is on the board of US Bank.
- US Bank CEO Richard Davis is the lead independent director of Xcel Energy.
- Ecolab CEO Doug Baker is on the board of both Target and US Bank.
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Ten of these twelve corporations have their headquarters in Minnesota, while Delta and
Wells Fargo have large operations in Minnesota dating back to when predecessors for those
two companies were headquartered here.
As Employers
Seven of these corporations are among the ten largest private sector, for-profit employers in
Minnesota.
Private For-profit Employers in the Twin Cities 33
Rank
Corporation
Minnesota
Employees
1
Target*
29,900
3
Wells Fargo
20,000
4
3M*
16,700
5
UnitedHealth*
15,000
6
US Bank*
11,900
7
Delta Airlines
10,000
8
Medtronic*
9,300
11
Best Buy*
8,000
13
Xcel*
5,700
18
General Mills
4,800
24
Ecolab
2,900
*denotes Minnesota headquarters
Page 13
Many of the positions at these corporations pay poverty wages.

Company
Target
Best Buy
US Bank
Wells Fargo
Delta
UnitedHealth
Position
Cashiers/ Sales Floor Team Member
Sales Associate
Teller
Teller
Ramp Agent/ Baggage Handler
Customer Service Representatives
Average Hourly Wage34

$9.02
$10.45
$11.50
$11.78
$12.60
$13.34
Meanwhile, Minnesota's largest corporations pay their CEOs extravagantly.
CEO
Stephen Hemsley
Doug Baker
Scott Wine
Brian Cornell
John Stumpf
Richard Davis
Richard Anderson
Inge Thulin
Kendall Powell
Omar Ishrak
Hubert Joly
Ben Fowke
Company
UnitedHealth
Ecolab
Polaris
Target
Wells Fargo
US Bank
Delta Airlines
3M
General Mills
Medtronic
Best Buy
Xcel Energy
2014 Total
Compensation35
Hourly
Rate
$66.1 million
$47.3 million
$31.3 million
$28.2 million
$19.3 million
$18.1 million
$17.6 million
$17.2 million
$10.5 million
$8.3 million
$8.0 million
$7.3 million
$31,800
$22,700
$15,000
$13,600
$9,300
$8,700
$8,500
$8,300
$5,000
$4,000
$3,900
$3,500
Rank
among
CEOs of MN
Corps
2
3
4
5
N/A
6
N/A
7
14
17
19
21
These corporations have an impact in who they hire and don't hire, for which positions, and how
much they pay people in those positions. For instance, Wells Fargo has implemented a policy
that any criminal conviction no matter how small or how far in the past warrants being barred
from employment with the company.
In 2012, Wells Fargo performed background checks on existing employees which led to
the termination of a large number of employees, including a customer service worker
whose crime was using a cardboard cut-out of a dime in a laundromat washing machine
50 years ago36
There is a pending lawsuit by seven African-American former employees against Wells

Fargo. The seven employees were terminated in 2012 after background checks found
years-old convictions for crimes such as marijuana possession and misdemeanor theft.
The lawsuit claims that Wells Fargos actions are illegal because they have a
disproportionate impact on African-Americans.37
There was a similar situation at Best Buy after a store's general manager had hired someone
with a felony record. The manger had the store's other employees participate in interviewing
the job applicant, and they all agreed with the decision to hire him. When Best Buy coroporate
Page 14
managers found out, they fired the general manager.38

Another example is the two-tiered labor force in the banking industry. White employees
dominate upper management and higher-paying jobs, despite large increases in the number of
people of color with advanced education and experience and despite highly-touted programs to
increase diversity. Meanwhile, people of color remain trapped in the lowest paying jobs.
In the Twin Cities, people of color make up 21% of the area's bank tellers but
7% or less of bank jobs that pay over $30/hour.39 The median wage for a bank
teller in the Twin Cities is less than $12/hour.40
Tellers at US Bank are paid an average wage of $11.50, which means that even
if they work forty hours a week, they will still be below the poverty line.41
The result of this low pay is that almost a third (31%) of bank tellers must rely
on public assistance for themselves or their families in order to get by.42
Public Policy
Workers have been fighting to improve
their working conditions through
raising the minimum wage, winning
paid sick days, fair scheduling, and paid
family leave. And whether their efforts
are at the federal, state, or city level,
Minnesota's
most
powerful
corporations are there fighting to keep
the status quo.
Although these corporations may say
that they don't take positions on
legislative issues such as a higher
minimum wage or paid sick days, their
political contributions and leadership in
industry trade associations makes it clear that they oppose these improvements.
A number of the associations discussed below were the architects of a state bill introduced in the
2015 legislative session that tried to prevent local municipalities from passing minimum wages or
private-sector benefits like paid sick days or fair scheduling in excess of state or federal
government requirements.43
The measure failed at the Capitol, giving cities around the state the green light to advance their
own policies tailored to the local needs of their residents, workers and businesses. The same
corporate business organizations that tried to win preemption at the state level then turned their
attention to fighting the Working Families agenda in Minneapolis, which included policies for paid
sick days and fair workweek scheduling.
The Minnesota Business Partnership is made up of the CEOs and senior executives
from the state's largest employers and was deemed Minnesota's "most powerful
business group" by the Star Tribune.
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Corporate Leadership:
o US Bank, in particular, is intimately involved in the organization.
US Bank CEO Richard Davis was the long-term term Chairman until
this past year, and he remains on the group's Executive Committee.
The current chairman, Polaris CEO Scott Wine, is on US Bank's
Board of Directors.
Ecolab CEO Doug Baker, who is also a prior chair of the Business
Partnership and the current chair of the group's Fiscal Policy
Committee, is also on US Bank's Board of Directors.
o Other members of the Executive Committee include Target CEO Brian
Cornell; General Mills CEO Kendall Powell; Xcel Energy CEO Ben Fowke;
and Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly.
o These CEOs and other executives from their corporations are among the
largest donors to the Business Partnerships' PAC in the last ten years.44
Donors to the Business Partnership's PAC
Executive
Position
Total Amount
since 2005
Kendall Powell General Mills CEO
$40,000
Scott Wine
Polaris CEO
$38,000
Jeanine Rivet
UnitedHealth Executive VP
$32,000
Doug Baker
Ecolab CEO
$31,500
Greg Steinhafel Former Target CEO
$27,750
Richard Davis
US Bank CEO
$22,500
Legislative Agenda
o The Business Partnership opposed state level bills for such as a higher
minimum wage, paid sick days, and fair work week scheduling.
Executive Director Charlie Weaver said these policies would hinder
businesses' flexibility and make Minnesota uncompetitive.45
o
The group has taken an active role in opposing the Minneapolis

Working Families Agenda, which included policy improvements
regarding paid sick days and fair workweek scheduling. They held a
phone-conference in which 80 of its members participated to
strategize how to defeat the proposed policy.
The Business Partnership's Executive Director Charlie Weaver said that
such policies would threaten the viability of Minneapolis and would
result in businesses moving to St. Paul. Weaver said, "[O]verall,
there's little justification at all for government to tell a business how to
best operate" and that "the market is a very effective tool for ensuring
that employees are treated well." 46
The Minnesota Business Partnership and the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce are
consistently the first and second largest in lobbying expenditures in the state.47
Page 16
The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce is the state's largest business advocacy

organization. Although it boasts that it represents over 2,400 businesses of all types
and sizes across the state, its leadership is dominated by large companies.
Corporate Leadership
o Representatives from a number of the corporations discussed in this report
(3M, Best Buy, Ecolab, General Mills, Medtronic, Target, and US Bank)
are on the Chamber's board.48
Legislative Agenda
o The Chamber opposed legislation passed in 2014 to raise the minimum
wage to $9.50/hour. The group stressed that the minimum wage was not
intended to be a living wage.49
o One of the Chamber's legislative priorities in 2015 was to repeal the
provision in the state minimum wage law that would automatically
increase the wage based on inflation.50
o The Chamber opposed the state level paid sick days bill 51 and a state bill
that would set up a pool to provide Minnesotans with six weeks of paid
family leave, stating: "Employers, in consultation with their employees,
should determine the type and scope of benefits that will meet the diverse
needs of their workforce. Mandating benefits hinders employer's flexibility
to deal with individual employee circumstances. . . ." 52
The Minnesota Retailers Association is the trade group representing the retail
industry in Minnesota in the public policy arena.
Corporate Leadership
o An executive from Best Buy is the recent chair of the Association and
is currently on the Association's Executive Committee, along with an
executive from Target.53
Legislative Agenda
o The Association opposed raising the Minnesota state minimum wage
above the federal amount. In 2013, they fought against both the bill that
passed the House to raise the wage to $9.50 and the version that passed
the Senate to raise it to $7.75..54 The group also opposed indexing the
wage to inflation for future increases One of the group's legislative
priorities last session was to get the provision removed.55
o The Association lobbied against a bill that would require businesses to
provide paid time off if their employees or their relatives become ill. The
Association "believes that retailers are best suited to establish wages and
benefits in the workplace, and opposes a workplace sick leave
mandate."56
The Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce is chaired by an executive from Xcel

Energy. The Board of Directors includes an additional executive from Xcel, as well
as executives from US Bank, Wells Fargo, and Target. The Minneapolis Chamber
Page 17
of Commerce coordinated the Workplace Fairness Coalition, which was formed to

oppose the Minneapolis Working Families agenda.
The Minneapolis Downtown Council's board is made up almost exclusively of
large property owners, such as Xcel Energy and Wells Fargo. While most
corporations
that are part of
the Downtown
Council
have
one
representative
on the board,
U.S.
Bank,
Target,
and
Macy's
each
have two.57
Federal Minimum Wage

Rep. John Kline (R-MN), chair of the House Education Workforce Committee, led the
opposition in 2014 when the House of Representatives rejected a bill to raise the federal
minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10. Kline said, "We need jobs out there. The best approach
right now is to get federal spending under control and government out of the way of the
nation's job creators."58
The Political Action Committees (PACs) of Minnesota corporations have been big backers of
Kline. They have contributed over $350,000 in the last ten years.
PAC Contributions to Kline since 200559
PAC
Total Amount
Target
$55,000
General Mills
$49,500
Ecolab
$42,000
Wells Fargo
$41,500
3M
$41,000
Best Buy
$30,500
UnitedHealth
$30,000
US Bank
$20,500
Delta
$19,500
Xcel
$19,000
Medtronic
$8,000
Page 18
The Union Difference

Unions help close the gaps between white workers and workers of color.
Black workers have a higher union membership rate than white workers and are
more likely than white workers to view unions favorably.
o 13.2% of Black workers are union members, compared to 10.8% of white workers.60
o Sixty percent of African-Americans hold a favorable view of unions, compared to fortynine percent of Latinos and forty-five percent of whites.61
Union members, especially people of color, earn higher wages than workers who aren't
in a union.
o On average in 2014,
union
workers
earned 27 percent
more
than
nonunion workers.
The
union
difference is even
larger for workers
of color -- 33
percent higher for
African-Americans
and 42 percent for
Latinos. 62
The opposition of Minnesota corporations to unions serves to keep workers of color
impoverished and to widen the already large racial income gap.
In 2010, Target, 3M, and Best Buy had a total of 15 lobbyists working in
Washington, DC lobbying against the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).63
EFCA would have protected workers' right to join together in a union and
would have made it harder for management to threaten workers seeking to
organize a union.
In 2014 and 2015, Best Buy, Ecolab, Polaris, 3M, and Target have all lobbied in
opposition to proposed pro-worker changes in the National Labor Relations
Board election process.64
Doug Loon, the new president of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, worked
for the last twenty years the U.S. Chamber, where he was a key player in the fight
against EFCA.65 The Chamber is the most powerful business lobbying
organization in the U.S. and has been aggressively campaigning against unions
for nearly a century.66
Page 19
B. Homeownership/ Debt
Homeownership has been the largest source of wealth for most families, and the largest
factor explaining the Racial Wealth Gap.
Minnesota has the largest homeownership gap in the country with 77% of
white families owning their home, compared to 39% of all families of color.67
This is the largest gap in Minnesota since 1990.
ownership rate in Minnesota -- just 26%.
African-Americans have the lowest home
Homeownership Rates by Race/Ethnicity, 201268

Minnesota
77%
United States
74%
44%
46%
44%
26%
White
Latino
African-American
Redlining
From the 1930s through the 1960s, African-Americans were almost completely excluded from
the home mortgage market. In 1934, the U.S. formed the Federal Housing Administration (FHA)
to insure private mortgages. This made home buying more affordable and accessible by
lowering interest rates and reducing the size of the down payment needed.
FHA boosted American homeownership from 30 percent in 1930 to over 60 percent by 1960,
but did not help African-Americans. The FHA would not insure areas where African-Americans
lived, drawing a red line around those neighborhoods. This practice of redlining became the
norm in the entire mortgage industry.69
Properties that were insured by the FHA were required to have restrictive covenants
prohibiting the property from being sold to anyone who wasn't white.
These policies not only resulted in lower homeownership rates for African-Americans, but also
in homes in predominantly Black neighborhoods not increasing in value as much as those in
predominantly white neighborhoods. This also created neighborhoods that continue to
be highly segregated. In this way, U.S. government policies helped whites build wealth that was
not available to African-Americans, and to some degree was even at the expense of AfricanAmericans. Thus, a big part of the Racial Wealth Gap is the direct result of government policies. 70
Page 20
Redlining was not officially outlawed until 1968 by the Fair Housing Act. However,
homeownership rates for people of color didn't really increase until the 1990's, when
community organizations made effective use of the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act (CRA)
and 1975 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) to get banks to increase their home mortgage
lending in lower income neighborhoods. 71
As a result, there was a steady increase in home ownership rates from 42.3% in 1994 to 49.1%
in 2004 for African-Americans and from 41.2% to 48.1% for Latinos. 72
U.S Homeownership Rates

50.00%
48.00%
46.00%
44.00%
African-American
42.00%
Latino
40.00%
38.00%
36.00%
1994
1996
1998
2000
2002
2004
For African-Americans and Latinos in particular, there was a direct relationship

between wealth accumulation and homeownership. In 2005, before the bottom dropped
out of the housing market, home equity accounted for 65% and 53% of the average net
worth of Latinos and African-Americans respectively, compared to 44% for whites.73
This is why the subprime housing crisis was such a disaster for families of color.
Predatory Subprime Lending and Foreclosures
As discussed above, communities of color have long been excluded from traditional banking
services. This history of racial exclusion created an environment that was fertile for
predatory lenders to market high-rate loan products. These unscrupulous actors
aggressively targeted underserved communities with a bombardment of mailings, phone
calls, and door-to-door solicitations. A number of reports have documented the staggering
racial and economic disparities in mortgage lending.
Subprime loans made up a significant portion of the mortgages made in communities
of color.
In the Twin Cities in 2005-2006, subprime loans accounted for half of all home
purchase and refinance loans made in neighborhoods where more than half the
residents are people of color. In contrast, just 20% of the home loans made in
predominantly white neighborhoods were subprime.
Page 21
Black and Latino homeowners were twice as likely as white homeowners to receive a
high-cost subprime refinance loan.
In 2005-2006 in the Twin Cities metro area, over half (55%) of the refinance
loans made to Black home owners and almost half (48%) of the refinance loans
made to Latino homeowners were high-rate subprime loans. In contrast,
subprime loans made up just 22% of the refinance loans received by white
homeowners.
2005-2006 Twin Cities Metro Area Refinance Loans

Black
Latino
Total Loans
4,177
3,103
Subprime Loans
2,281
1,479
Subprime Share
55%
48%
Likelihood Compared to
Whites to Receive a Subprime
2.5
2.1
Loan
White
96,213
21,408
22%
The racial disparity was even higher for home purchase loans.
In 2005 and 2006, almost two-thirds,
62%, of the home purchase loans made
to African-Americans in the Twin Cities
were high-rate subprime loans, and over
half, 51%, of the home purchase loans
made to Latinos were subprime. In
contrast, subprime loans accounted for
just 14% of the home purchase loans
made to whites.
While not all subprime loans were predatory, the overwhelming majority of predatory loans
were subprime, and the subprime industry was a fertile breeding ground for predatory
practices. Subprime loans were said to be for people who were unable to obtain a
conventional prime loan, and the higher interest rates were supposedly to compensate for the
potentially greater risk that these borrowers represented.
However, predatory lending occurred when loan terms or conditions became abusive or when
borrowers who would have qualified for credit on better terms were targeted instead for these
higher cost loans.
During the housing boom, just 6% of whites with credit scores of 660 and higher
received high-interest mortgages, but 21% of African-Americans with a score of 660 or
higher received these type of subprime loans.74
In a New York University study published last year, researchers found that Black and
Latino families making more than $200,000 a year were more likely to receive
subprime loans than white families making less than $30,000.75
Page 22
Too often higher rate subprime loans were also loaded with abusive features -- such as high
fees, large and extended prepayment penalties, financed single premium credit insurance -which cost borrowers even more money, and kept them trapped into the higher interest rates.
As a result, Black and Latino homeowners were twice as likely to suffer sub-prime
related home foreclosures as white homeowners were.76
The subprime foreclosure crisis had a devastating impact on people of color.
Over half (53%) the collective wealth of Black families was stripped away during the
housing collapse. The Latino community lost two-thirds (66%) of its total wealth. In
contrast, white households lost 16% of their wealth.77
From 2005 to 2009 the median level of home equity that Latino homeowners had
nationally was cut in half from about $100,000
to $49,000. For African- American homeowners,
Over half of the collective
the median level of home equity declined from
about $77,000 to $59,000 during this period.
wealth of AfricanFor white homeowners, it was a much smaller
American families and
decrease - from $115,000 to $95,000.78
two-thirds of the Latino

2005-2012 Minneapolis Foreclosures
by Neighborhood
community's total wealth

was stripped away
during the housing
collapse.
Almost half of all the foreclosures in
Minneapolis were in North Minneapolis.
Minneapolis
Neighborhood
Calhoun-Isles
Camden
Central
Longfellow
Near North
Nokomis
Northeast
Phillips
Powderhorn
Southwest
University
TOTAL
Total Foreclosures
2005-201279
376
3,106
503
590
3,137
1,054
1,327
791
2,104
680
171
13,839
Percentage of
Total
2.72%
22.44%
3.63%
4.26%
22.67%
7.62%
9.59%
5.72%
15.20%
4.91%
1.24%
Page 23
Homeowners in North Minneapolis who managed to avoid foreclosure saw the value of their
properties nosedive. North Minneapolis property values took a much bigger hit than other
city neighborhoods and still haven't recovered to even near their pre-recession levels. In
North Minneapolis, homes are worth over 20% less than they were ten years ago, whereas
in the Calhoun-Isles area homes are worth 40% more than they were a decade ago.80
Median Home Values in Minneapolis Neighborhood81
Neighborhood
2005
2010
Calhoun-Isles
Camden
Central
Longfellow
Near-North
Nokomis
Northeast
Phillips
Powderhorn
Southwest
University
$255,000
$163,900
$247,045
$211,000
$159,000
$223,450
$205,900
$174,500
$193,400
$285,000
$239,414
$258,000
$71,600
$242,350
$169,850
$54,450
$190,000
$153,000
$110,000
$125,000
$275,000
$190,000
2015
$360,000
$122,000
$260,000
$207,250
$125,200
$227,000
$199,825
$141,500
$224,500
$340,000
$230,000
Change
2005-2010
1.2%
-56.3%
-1.9%
-19.5%
-65.8%
-15.0%
-25.7%
-37.0%
-35.4%
-3.5%
-20.6%
Change
2005-2015
41.2%
-25.6%
5.2%
-1.8%
-21.3%
1.6%
-3.0%
-18.9%
16.1%
19.3%
-3.9%
Corporate Impact
While predatory lenders sometimes appeared to be small-time storefront operators, the
masters of predatory lending could be found among some of the world's largest financial
institutions. In fact, many of the same institutions which first created the situation by their
failure to serve certain communities later seized the opportunity to reap enormous profits.
In 2012, Wells Fargo entered into a $224 million settlement with the U.S.
Department of Justice to resolve claims that it had discriminated by steering AfricanAmericans and Latinos into higher cost subprime mortgages even though their credit
qualified for lower cost prime loans.82
Wells Fargo made subprime loans in more than one in four (26.2%) of the
refinances it made in 2005-2006 in Twin Cities neighborhoods where more than
half the residents are people of color. In contrast, less than one in nine (8.5%) of
the refinances made by Wells Fargo in predominantly white neighborhoods
were subprime.
US Bank was a major investor in New Century Financial, which was "among the most
notoriously predatory of the subprime lenders operating at the time."83 By 2007,
when the company filed for bankruptcy, New Century was the second largest
subprime mortgage lender in the country.
In 2005-2006, just 2% of the refinance loans made by US Bank in the Twin Cities
area were in neighborhoods where people of color made up more than half of the
population. In contrast, almost 10% of the refinances made by New Century were
in these neighborhoods.
Page 24
The investments in New Century were just a small part of US Bank's involvement
with subprime lenders. Throughout the last decade, US Bank served as a trustee
for billions of dollars in securitized pools of home mortgages made by numerous
of the largest subprime lenders, including Ameriquest, CitiFinancial, Conseco,
Countrywide, Equicredit, and Household. As the trustee, US Bank was responsible
for distributing the cash flow from the mortgage pools to all the different investors
each month, after taking a percentage of the overall pool balance.
In their rush to foreclose on delinquent homeowners, many mortgage servicers were accused
of engaging in negligent and fraudulent practices, where employees admitted to preparing
massive numbers of foreclosure documents without appropriate verification. Servicers
foreclosed without proof that the lender was the actual holder of the mortgage or that the
borrower was even in default.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) conducted examinations of the foreclosure
processes of US Bank and Wells Fargo and found that both banks engaged in unsafe and
unsound practices.
In the last 30 years, there has been extreme consolidation in the banking industry so that US
Bank and Wells Fargo now completely dominate the Twin Cities market.
US Bank and Wells Fargo need to commit themselves to doing their part to reduce the
homeownership gap. However, their actions are having the opposite effect, such as by rejecting
Black and Latino homebuyers more frequently than white homebuyers.
US Bank
Wells Fargo
White
Denial Rate
Black
Denial Rate
White: Black
Rejection Ratio
Latino Denial
Rate
White: Latino
Rejection Ratio
10.0%
12.4%
19.2 %
28.7%
1.9
2.3
22.5%
14.6%
2.3
1.2
In 2014, US Bank and Wells Fargo rejected Black and Latino applicants twice as
often as whites. 84
Page 25
Applicants looking to buy a home in neighborhoods where people of color make up more than
half the population were turned down by US Bank three times as often as applicants in
predominantly white neighborhoods, and twice as often by Wells Fargo.
Rejection rate in predominantly white
neighborhoods
Rejection rate in neighborhoods where people
of color make up more than half the population
Rejection Ratio
US Bank
10.9%
Wells Fargo
13.9%
32.6%
25.8%
3.0
1.9
The share of home purchase loans made by US Bank and Wells Fargo to African-Americans
and Latinos in 2014 is well below the portion that they represent of the Twin Cities metro
area population.
African-Americans make up at least 8.4% of the population of the Twin Cities metro
area, yet the percentage they received of purchase loans from US Bank and Wells
Fargo was about three times less than that.
Latinos make up 6% of the Twin Cities metro population, but received a share of US
Bank and Wells Fargo purchase loans that was two and a half times less than their
share.
Neighborhoods where people of color make up more than half the population account for
12.6% of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area, yet received just 2.2% of the purchase loans
from US Bank and 4.2% from Wells Fargo.
African-Americans
Latinos
Neighborhoods in which people of color
make up more than half the population
MinneapolisSt. Paul
Metro Area
8.4%
6.0%
12.6%
US Bank
Wells Fargo
Purchase Loans Purchase Loans
3.1%
1.6%
2.2%
2.4%
2.4%
4.2%
Payday Lending
Payday lenders maintain that their loans are meant to help people in a one-time emergency, but in fact
payday loans often sink people deeper in debt and trap them in extremely expensive loans.
The average Minnesota payday loan customer takes out ten loans a year.85 Nearly a quarter of payday
loan customers took out 15 or more loans.86
Payday lenders exploited a need that banks were not meeting for their customers. Rather than changing
their practices or developing new products to better serve their customers needs, banks opportunistically
chose to invest in payday lenders and share in their profits.
Wells Fargo and US Bank have pumped hundreds of millions of dollars in capital into the payday loan
Page 26
industry, including providing financing to Payday America and ACE Cash Express, the two largest
payday lenders operating in Minnesota.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) found that four out of five payday loans are
rolled over or renewed within 14 days. The CFPB also found that the majority of all payday loans
are made to borrowers who renew their loans so many times that they end up paying more in fees
than the amount they originally borrowed.87
In 2014 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) took enforcement action against ACE Cash
Express for pushing payday borrowers into a cycle of debt. The CFPB found that ACE used illegal debt
collection tactics including harassment and false threats of lawsuits or criminal prosecution to
pressure overdue borrowers into taking out additional loans they could not afford.88
ACE's 2011 training manual includes a graphic showing the cycle in which customers first receive the
loan, then when they can't repay it, they are pressured to take out a new loan.
ACE Cash Express Training Manual
Who Uses Payday Loans

It should come as no surprise that payday loans,
with their triple-digit interest rates, are not used
by wealthy consumers. Eighty-one percent of
payday loan customers have a household
income less than $50,000 and half (forty-nine
percent) had household incomes less than
$25,000.89
In addition to low-and moderate income families,
people of color make up a disproportionate
number of payday loan users. Less than 4 percent
of white households have used payday loans,
compared to 12 percent of African-American
households.90
Wells Fargo and US Bank did begin to offer payday loan products of their own. However, instead of
being an affordable alternative to payday lenders, Wells Fargo and U.S. Bank charged even larger
fees and higher rates than many payday lenders in Minnesota.
In 2013, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued guidance to prevent banks from
making small-dollar loans that caught their customers in a debt trap because they couldnt afford to
pay the loans back.91 In January 2014, US Bank and
Wells Fargo announced that they were discontinuing
their payday loan products.92
Both banks announced they would be developing
new products. US Bank issued a statement that the
bank was committed to finding new solutions that
meet the needs of all of our customers and fit within
the current regulatory expectations.93 However,
there has been no action to date.
Page 27
C. Education
Completion of high school and college are more important than ever to succeed in today's labor
market, yet graduation rates for Blacks and Latinos continue to lag far behind rates for whites.
Minnesota has one of the largest educational achievement gaps between

white students and students of color in the United States.94 The 2014 high school
graduation rates for Latinos in Minnesota is the lowest in the U.S., and the rate for AfricanAmericans in Minnesota is the third lowest in the U.S.95
Public High School 4 year graduation rates

90.00%
80.00%
70.00%
60.00%
50.00%
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
Minnesota
Black
60.40%
Latino
63.20%
White
86.30%
United States
72.50%
76.30%
87.20%
Although there has been an increase in college attendance rates for African-American and Latino
households, the college graduation gap between whites and people of color has continued to grow.
Percent of Recent High School Graduates Enrolled in College96
Page 28
Percent of Population Age 25 and Older with Degress
Minnesota College Degree Attainment, 201297

45%
40%
44%
35%
30%
25%
33%
28%
20%
15%
21%
19%
16%
10%
5%
0%
African-American
Latino
Bachelors Degree or Higher
White
Associate Degree or Higher
Black and Latino college students face many financial obstacles standing in the way of success.
Seventy-four percent of Latino students who left college without finishing a

degree and sixty-nine percent of Black students cited financial reasons, compared
to forty-three percent of white students.98
With fewer family economic resources than white students, Black and Latino students are forced
to work more hours and take on more student loan debt.99
In 2013, 42 percent of African American families had student loans, compared

to 28 percent of white families.100
Black students are more likely to have student loan debt and to have a larger debt load
Four out of five Black

students (81%) take out
loans to go to college,
compared to 65% of white
students.101
African-Americans
who
take out loans have an
average student loan debt
of $28,700 compared to
$24,700 for white.102
Page 29
Rate of borrowing and average student debt level by race103

.
Declining state support for higher education has resulted in shifting a greater share of the costs to
students through increased tuition and fees.
At the University of Minnesota from 2006 to 2014:
enrollment grew 7% from 87,800 to almost 94,000;104
state funding decreased by 18%;105
tuition increased 40%;106
the number of students graduating with student loan debt rose 20%
the average debt held by those students grew 16% from $29,300 to $34,000107
There has also been a significant decrease in state funding for K-12 education in Minnesota,
which has lead to larger class sizes; elimination of music, art, and sports programs; and a lack of
resources needed for important public investments, such as all-day kindergarten. 108
Because of the decrease in state aid, school
districts were forced to increase property
taxes to try to make up some of the gap.
Property tax levies for K-12 education more
than tripled between 2003 and 2012, and
more than doubled after adjusting for
inflation. 109
Since the revenue from increased levies was
not large enough to replace the drop in
school aid, overall school district revenues
decreased. 110
Page 30
The situation in the St. Paul and Minneapolis schools mirrored what was happening in other districts
throughout the state.111
Corporate Impact
Corporate State Taxes
Over the last two decades, large corporations have seen a reduction in their Minnesota state tax rates.
As corporations paid less in taxes, there was less state aid available for school districts.
Corporations currently are taxed at a 9.8% state income tax rate. In the past this rate had been as
high as 12% and even higher, 13.6%, for banks.112 As shown below, in 1977 corporate income taxes
accounted for over 8.4% of the total state and local taxes collected. In 2013, it was about half as much,
just 4.5%.113
MN Department of Revenue, Tax Research Division, May 11, 2015
Page 31
The 2001 Tax Act dramatically reduced the state's commercial property tax rate. 114 The Tax
Act was also intended to provide relief to homeowners, but as local governments raised
property taxes in order to make up for at least some of the reduction in state aid, a larger
share of the property tax increases fell on homeowners than would have been the case prior.
115
As a result, there was an 87% increase from 2002 to 2014 in the total amount of
homestead property taxes paid, compared to a 64% increase in business property
taxes.116
The share of total statewide property taxes paid by business shrunk from 36% in
2002 to 31% in 2014, while the share paid by homeowners remained at 41%.117
The levies were not large enough to make up for the full drop in state aid, so districts have had
to cut costs and take on additional debt.
Corporate Tax Dodging
The Minnesota Business Partnership continues to beat the drum for corporate tax breaks,
claiming that Minnesota corporations are not competitive with companies in other states.
However, many of the corporations represented on the Business Partnership's Executive
Committee pay far less than the statutory federal and state tax rates.
These corporations have engaged in practices such as having subsidiaries in offshore tax
havens that make it possible to shift income and assets in order to avoid paying corporate
income taxes in the United States.
Ecolab alone has tax haven subsidiaries in Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba,
Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Channel Islands, Cost Rica,
Cyprus, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, Macau, Malta, Mauritus, Panama, and
Singapore.118
From 2008 to 2012, Wells Fargo avoided paying $22 billion in federal income
taxes. While the federal tax rate requires big corporations to pay a 35%
corporate income tax rate, Wells Fargo paid a rate of just 12%, shielding almost
two-thirds of its profits from federal taxes entirely.119
During this same
time, Wells Fargo
avoided paying $4
billion in state
corporate income
taxes. Wells Fargo
paid state income
taxes equal to just
2% of its US profits.
Since the average
state
income
corporate tax rate
nationally is about
6.2%, Wells Fargo
was also able to
shield two-thirds of
its profits from state taxes.120
Page 32
Corporate Tax Avoidance 2008 - 2012121

Corporation
Wells Fargo
US Bancorp
Xcel Energy
Target
3M
General Mills
Federal
Effective Tax
Tax Breaks
Rate
12%
$21.6 billion
24%
$2.9 billion
1%
$2.0 billion
27%
$1.6 billion
22%
$1.6 billion
20%
$1.4 billion
State
Effective Tax
Rate
2%
4%
2%
3%
1%
3%
Tax Breaks
$4.1 billion
$614 million
$248 million
$671 million
$661 million
$313 million
Institutional Debt
In order to make up for the deficit, schools not only cut costs, they also had to take on additional debt
through bond offerings.
The University of Minnesota:
increased its long term debt from $743 million122 in 2006 to almost $1.3 billion.123 124
is paying $46 million a year in annual interest payments, up from $22 million in 2006125 126 127
has paid almost $2 million in upfront fees in new borrowing just since 2013.
US Bank is the trustee for the $1.3 million in outstanding bonds issued by the U.
Wells Fargo was the underwriter for $185 million of these bonds.
The St. Paul Public Schools:
has total long term debt of almost $500 million, a $175 million increase from ten years before. 128
has paid $5 million in upfront fees to borrow this money129
is paying $16 million a year just in interest on this debt. 130
US Bank is the trustee for all of the district's outstanding bonds.
Wells Fargo was the underwriter for $75 million of the district's bonds.131
Student Debt
As discussed above, declining state support for higher education has resulted in increased
tuition and fees and consequently greater student loan debt.
Wells Fargo is the second largest private student lender, behind only Sallie Mae.
Originates 20% of the private student loans in the U.S.132
Currently serves 1.3 million student loan customers and has a $12.2 billion
private student loan portfolio133
Wells Fargo stayed in the student loan market, even after many banks left after 2010 when
the federal government began lending directly to students instead of subsidizing private
lenders to make the loans.
Some believe Wells Fargo decided to stay in the student loan market so that
the bank could gain additional business from the students, 134 since crossPage 33
selling is a core part of the bank's operating model. Their personal banking
customers have an average now of 6.2 products per household.135
When Wells Fargo decided to stay in the student loan market, the bank noted
that there was still an important role for private lenders [because] college
costs continue to rise.136
Although many students may need to use private student loans because federal loans wont
cover the full costs of college, more than half of private student loan borrowers did not fully
exhaust their eligibility for federal loans.137 Many students are simply unaware of their options
of various fixed, low-interest federal student loans and instead sign up for the more expensive
private loans with higher rates.
As of February 1, 2016, federal direct loans had a fixed APR of 4.29%,138 while the
private student loans offered by Wells Fargo had much higher rates.
Wells Fargo student loan rates139
Type of Loan
Fixed Rate APR Variable Rate APR
Career and community colleges
7.02% - 11.93%
4.77% - 10.43%
Four-year colleges
5.94% - 10.51%
3.40% - 8.81%
Loans for parents
6.24% - 12.99%
4.00% - 10.49%
Although private loans make up a small percentage of the overall market, borrowers with large
debt loads disproportionately carry private loans, and students at for-profit colleges take on
private student loans at twice the rate of students enrolled in nonprofit schools.
Students of color take out private student loans at a higher rate than white students, and Black
students are almost three times more likely than whites to attend a for-profit college.
Page 34
Personal Income Taxes

The wealthiest Minnesotans used to pay an 18% state income tax rate. This was gradually
reduced until it hit 7.85% in 2000 -- less than half what it had been. It stayed at 7.85% until
2014 when it increased to 9.5%.
Minnesota Top Income Tax Rate140
20%
18%
16%
14%
12%
10%
8%
6%
4%
2%
0%
1977
1980
1986
1987
1990
2000
2014
In the 2013 session, the state legislature imposed a 9.5% tax rate on the wealthiest
Minnesotans. The Minnesota Business Partnership and Chamber of Commerce both strongly
opposed this action. The Business Partnership argued that the rich already paid more than
their fair share and that taxing the wealthy would prevent big businesses from expanding and
growing in Minnesota.141
When the rich pay their fair share, we are able to take steps to better fund public education.
Both the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system
were able to freeze tuition for two years, 142 and in 2015 the state budget included an
additional $350 million for k-12 education. 143
Continued Efforts to Lower Corporate Taxes
The changes in state law that lowered corporate tax rates came about as a result of decades of
consistent lobbying by business organizations. The two most aggressive organizations pushing for
lower corporate taxes are the Minnesota Business Partnership and Chamber of Commerce. One of
their current legislative priorities is to get rid of the state property tax on businesses, which
currently brings in about $1 billion a year in revenue.
In 2011, the Republican-controlled House and Senate voted to eliminate the

property tax on business properties, as part of a larger tax bill that Governor
Dayton vetoed.144
In June 2012, Julianne Ortman, the Senate Taxes chair said that eliminating the
business property tax was one of the Senate Republicans' top three priorities and
the most important thing the Taxes Committee could do. 145 However, they still
couldn't get Dayton to support their bill.
Page 35
In 2015, the Minnesota House passed its Omnibus Tax Bill (HF848) which included the
permanent phase-out of the state business property tax. This would cost $450 million in
the first two years, $1 billion over the next two years, and then $1 billion a year after
that.146
Eliminating the state business property tax would be a huge windfall for the biggest businesses.
Corporation
Target
Best Buy
US Bank
Wells Fargo
Medtronic
Xcel
3M
Amount that would be gained annually with

elimination of state business property tax147
$4.4 million
$3.7 million
$3.5 million
$3.0 million
$2.5 million
$2.3 million
$2.1 million
The Corporate Education Agenda

State tax structure is not the only policy area of interest to the Chamber and the Business
Partnership. The organizations are part of a nationwide movement to apply business
principles to education. Under the guise of improving public education, they advocate for
changes that will have the opposite effect, turning our schools into profit-generating private
businesses.
After their actions left public schools underfunded and in debt, these same corporations
criticized the schools for not being successful enough. The Minnesota Business Partnership
issued a report together with the Itasca Project, another organization of which US Bank CEO
Richard Davis is the current chairperson and of which a Wells Fargo executive was the
previous chair.
The report cited Minnesota's worst in the nation racial achievement gap and stated that too
many graduating students are not fully prepared to enter college or the workforce. "A
staggering 38% of Minnesota public high school graduates who attend state colleges and
universities are insufficiently prepared -- requiring remedial coursework before they are
ready to learn at the college level." 148
The Minnesota Business Partnership is part of a nationwide movement which seeks to apply
business principles to education such as:
having CEO-like principals and superintendents, who have business experience but
little or no education experience;
closing "failing" schools, just as companies close unprofitable stores or factories;
aggressively cutting costs, such as by recruiting less experienced teachers
instituting a market-based system in which public schools, privately managed
charter schools, religious schools, for-profit schools, and virtual schools compete for
customers/students
making standardized test scores the ultimate measure, just as profits are the main
measure for businesses.149
Page 36
Standardized Testing
One of the main recommendations of the Business Partnership and Itasca Project's report was to
obtain more student data through testing from pre-school through college and to use that data
as the main method of evaluating not only students, but also teachers, teacher prep programs,
districts, schools and school leaders.150
Standardized testing is the bedrock of the corporate education reform movement. As the use of
standardized test scores has become more prevalent, "teaching to the test" has become a
common practice since low test scores threaten the future of individual teachers and entire
schools. With a primary focus on test scores rather than on education, corporations are able to
advocate for the hiring of administrators and teachers with little or no education training.
Teacher Training
One of the other main
recommendations
of
the
Business Partnership and Itasca
Project report was to make
greater use of alternative
teacher training programs such
as Teach for America (TFA). The
report notes that TFA has the
added benefit of targeting high
need students.
One of the
Business
Partnership's
legislative priorities in 2016 is
more funding for TFA.151
TFA has come under criticism for its model of placing under-trained, uncertified, first-and
second-year teachers in classrooms filled with high needs students.
"Every year, TFA installs thousands of unprepared 22-year olds, the
majority of whom are from economically and culturally privileged
backgrounds, into disadvantaged public schools. They are given a class
of their own after only five to six weeks of training and a scant number of
hours co-teaching summer school (in a different city, frequently in a
different subject, and with students in a different age group than the one
they end up teaching in the fall).152
TFA was originally intended to stem a teacher shortage and place teachers in schools that were
in need of teachers. However, TFA teachers are now replacing veteran teachers, because the
TFA teachers are less expensive. Since TFA members promise only to stay for two years, there
is a cycle in which they are then replaced by brand new under-trained, uncertified teachers,
creating a system of interchangeable educators.
Charter Schools
The corporate reform movement has been a big backer of charter schools, which can operate
largely apart from the oversight of the school district and the democratically elected school
Page 37
board. Charter schools are independently or privately run, but they are publicly financed, often
along with additional resources from corporate sponsors.
A New York Times editorial noted that although charter schools originally promised that
they would outperform traditional public schools if they were not restricted by public
bureaucracy and regulations, there was a "growing number of studies showing that
charter schools are generally no better - and often are worse -- than their traditional
counterparts . . ."153
In October 2014, the Minnesota Business Partnership announced its Charter School Initiative
in which fifteen Business Partnership member companies would help Minneapolis charter
schools by providing operational assistance, including marketing, professional development,
literacy support, and nutrition assistance. 154
In January 2015, the Business Partnership announced that it was making a loan to build a new
charter school in Minneapolis, the first of five new schools that they planned to build under its
initiative.155
The Impact of Foreclosures on Education
The subprime mortgage crisis and mortgage meltdown resulted in a record number of
foreclosures and plunged the United States into the worst financial crisis since the Great
Depression. Minnesota was not immune from this crisis. Although the housing crisis affected
individual homeowners of all races and ethnicities, communities of color suffered from an
extreme concentration of housing problems.
Foreclosures not only impacted individual homeowners, but also local governments,
neighborhoods, and other property owners, especially when foreclosures left vacant homes.
School districts lost
billions of dollars in
property tax revenue.
Over the last few years,
a number of cities,
counties, and school
districts have sued
Wells
Fargo
over
allegations of predatory
lending
and
the
resulting damage. The
most recent case was
filed in September 2015
by the city of Oakland,
CA which charged that
Wells Fargo targeted
Page 38
Oakland's Black and Latino homeowners for loans that were more expensive and
higher risk than those made to white homeowners.156
These lawsuits blame Wells Fargo for millions of dollars in lost tax revenue which led to cuts
in services and programs. Oakland's lawsuit asks Wells Fargo to compensate the city for the
"great financial harm" the foreclosure crisis caused.
Wells Fargos discriminatory conduct devastated individuals and communities, increasing
poverty and wiping out or drastically reducing wealth for minority communities while bankers
prospered, said Barbara Parker, the city attorney for Oakland. Wells Fargo and other banks
knew when they issued predatory loans that many of them would result in foreclosure."157
Foreclosure, or eviction from a home as a result of foreclosure, disrupts students' lives as
their families are forced to move. Students may have to change schools or even districts,
adjust to a different curriculum, and develop new relationships with teachers and peers.
Research has shown that involuntary residential moves and within-year school switching can
have detrimental effects on children's academic and social development. Disruptive residential
moves are linked to problems such as grade retention, failure to complete school, and a lack of
interpersonal skills.158
Further, foreclosures disproportionately affect families of color, whose children already face
greater academic challenges, broadening an already significant achievement gap.
Page 39
IV. Environment/ Health

It should come as no surprise that given the serious social and economic disparities discussed
above, there are significant health inequities in Minnesota as a result. For instance:
Black and Native American babies in Minnesota are between two to four times
more likely than white babies to die before their first birthday.159
codes in Minnesota
with the highest
Black and Latina women are more likely to beZip
diagnosed
with later-stage
breast
asthma-related
hospitalization
rates
160
cancer.
The five zip codes with the highest asthmarelated hospitalization rates in the entire state
of Minnesota are in North and South
Minneapolis. The rates in North Minneapolis are
five times higher than the rate for the metro area
as a whole and six times higher than the statewide
rate.161
28% of Native American high school seniors in
Minneapolis and 23% of African-American seniors
reported having had an asthma related incident,
compared to 18% of white high school seniors. 162
Since 1989, Hennepin County has burnt all of its
garbage in the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center
(HERC) incinerator. The incinerator burns toxic
materials such as tires, batteries, and plastic,
producing harmful pollutants into the nearby
North Minneapolis neighborhoods.163
The
incinerator emits tiny particles which can become
lodged in people's lungs and trigger asthma
attacks. Hospitalizations for asthma increase when
levels of particulate matter in the air increase.164
Additionally, incinerators add climate-changing
greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere.
The incinerator is operated by a company called Covanta. U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo have served
as the trustees for over $1.2 billion in securities offerings by Covanta since 2009. 165 One of the
ways that companies raise capital is to issue securities/ bonds. This is often more preferable
than direct borrowing from a bank, which is seen as more restrictive and expensive than selling
debt on the open market through a bond issue.
As the trustees in these deals, US Bank and Wells Fargo have several responsibilities, including
disbursing the payments from the bond issuer to the investors.
North Minneapolis is not the only place where communities of color experience the health
effects of climate-altering pollution and where African-Americans have asthma.
Page 40
Nationally, sixty-eight percent of African-Americans live within 30 miles of a coal

plant.166
African-Americans are hospitalized for asthma at three times the rate of whites and
die of asthma at twice the rate of whites.167
People of color, who are the least responsible for climate change, are the ones most negatively
impacted by it. African-Americans on average produce 20% less carbon dioxide per person than
whites.168
African-Americans are more likely to live in inner cities, which are about ten degrees warmer
than non-urban areas. This is a result from all the concrete and asphalt in cities that create "heat
islands."169 The heat wave in the summer of 2012 brought temperatures of 105-110 degrees to
major cities like Chicago and St. Louis. African-Americans die from heat-related incidents at
double the rate of whites. Climate change increases the rate of African-American heat-related
deaths even more.170
African-Americans have been severely impacted by climate change in a number of other ways,
such as the financial devastation brought by Hurricane Katrina.
Fossil fuels are the main cause of climate change, and both U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo invest
in the most harmful fossil fuels, including tar sands oil, mountaintop coal removal and fracking.
Tar Sands Oil extraction and upgrading produces two to three-and-a-half times more
greenhouse gases than conventional U.S. crude oil.171 From extraction, transport, refining,
and consumption, oil threatens our health, water, and the lives and rights of First Nations
people living at the source and downstream of extraction projects.
According to Rainforest Action Network, Wells Fargo has provided over $2 billion in
financing to tar sands companies since 2007.172
US Bank is the trustee for nearly $2 billion of the assets of Enbridge Energy, a
pipeline conglomerate that transports tar sands oil mined in Alberta, Canada
through Minnesota and other parts of the United States. and its subsidiaries.173
Page 41
Coal is the main source of carbon emissions worldwide. It contributes massively to

climate change, as well as harming our land, waterways, and the health of our
communities.
Over the last ten years, US Bank and Wells Fargo have provided over $12.7
billion in financing to the coal industry in the U.S., including significant support
for the four largest coal companies that together produce half of the coal in the
U.S.174
$2 billion of the support that US Bank and Wells Fargo have provided to the coal
industry has been for two companies that engaged in mountaintop removal,
which is a particularly destructive form of coal mining, in which the tops of
mountains are deforested and then removed with explosives and heavy
machinery, flattening the landscape. 175
Fracking is the process of extracting natural gas and oil from deep under the earth by
drilling into shale rocks and injecting fluid at high pressure. This method of Bakken
crude extraction relies upon silica-sand from the hills of southern Minnesota and
eastern Wisconsin.
US Bank and Wells Fargo have played a role in providing over $24 billion in
financing over the last ten years to companies in the fracking industry.176
Natural Gas has been promoted as a clean alternative to coal and oil, but recent
studies show that an increased use of natural gas may raise carbon emissions rather
than lowering them. 177
US Bank and Wells Fargo have provided $22 billion in financing since 2013 to
the top ten U.S. gas and oil companies. 178
Xcel Energy operates the Sherco coal-fired power plant in Becker, MN, which is the largest soot
and carbon polluter in the state. It is the 21st most carbon-polluting plant in the country,
producing as much global warming pollution each year as 2.7 million cars.179 Under pressure
from a number of environmental advocacy groups, Xcel Energy announced that it would retire
the two oldest boilers at Sherco. 180 Doing so is projected to reduce carbon emissions by up to
12 million tons a year. 181 This would be part of a larger plan for Xcel to move from coal energy
to renewables and cut its carbon emissions 60 percent by 2030.182
Page 42
V. Recommendations
Income/Unemployment
Raise the minimum wage to $15/hour: Black and Latino workers are overly concentrated in
positions that pay at or just above the minimum wage and would benefit the most from an
increased minimum wage. Minnesota's most powerful corporations should guarantee that their
employees are paid at least $15/ hour.
Ensure workers have paid-time-off and other basic benefits: Minnesota's most powerful
corporations should guarantee that their employees have adequate paid time off to care for
themselves or their families and that they have access to full-time hours without last minute
changes. These corporations should also support proposed policies to raise standards for
working families and use their leadership role in local business trade groups to ensure that those
groups do not obstruct or derail the adoption of these policies that will dramatically improve
conditions for workers in Minnesota.
Make it easier for workers to form unions: Union members, especially people of color, earn
higher wages than workers who aren't in a union. Enabling workers to freely exercise their right
to form unions is one of the most effective and efficient ways to raise wages, improve benefits,
and close the income gap between white workers and workers of color.
Create more jobs through federal programs: Our nation's infrastructure is in dire need of
repairs. Federal investments in fixing roads and bridges would create thousands of good jobs.
Our schools and neighborhoods need more resources. A federal program could provide
employment opportunities working for the public's benefit. Such programs should be targeted to
those with the greatest need, such as people of color, the unemployed, and ex-offenders.
Grant driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants. Having a license can provide
immigrants with opportunities they might otherwise not have, such as: increased options for job
location; flexibility to work additional hours or change work schedule; ability to travel to
different work sites or transport tools and materials.
Contract with businesses owned by people of color: Minnesota's corporations should develop
or strengthen plans to procure goods and services from local businesses owned by people of
color. This should include plans to train local small businesses on the purchase management
system used by the specific company. When necessary, companies should break orders into
smaller increments to allow more participation by smaller businesses.
Companies need to commit to making their workforce reflect the diversity of the Twin
Cities. Companies should adopt measureable goals and implement training programs to help
employees of color attain higher-paying jobs.
Companies should adopt fair hiring guidelines recommended by the EEOC. This would
include: considering criminal records only when they directly relate to the position sought by the
applicant; allowing applicants to show evidence of rehabilitation; and not considering nonconviction records or cases that have been expunge or pardoned.
Page 43
Homeownership/ Debt
Aggressively enforce housing anti-discrimination laws. Fair lending laws should be strongly
enforced and violators punished with civil money penalties and cease and desist orders. The
Justice Department and HUD should have a higher profile in investigating mortgage
discrimination.
Be more active in making good loans in underserved areas. Banks should eradicate any
possible discrimination in their lending and outreach practices. They should examine current
underwriting guidelines and the impact of credit scoring and automated underwriting on lending
to communities of color. Banks should partner with community-based organizations to make
home purchase credit available in underserved neighborhoods.
Sell troubled assets to entities working to preserve homeownership. HUD and FHFA have
been selling off non-performing loans to Wall Street investors, at the expense of low-income
communities. These investors have a history of defrauding taxpayers and harming homeowners,
tenants and neighborhoods. HUD and FHFA should sell these troubled mortgages to entities that
are working to preserve homeownership and create affordable housing, not Wall Street
speculators.
Authorize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to modify more loans. These federally-chartered
institutions should be able to reduce mortgage principal for underwater homeowners and to
modify mortgages in other ways to help struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure.
Limit payday loans to a 36 percent annual percentage rate (APR). Minnesota should follow
the lead of a number of other states by imposing this limit for all borrowers in the state. The law
should be protected and aggressively enforced. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)
should issue rules regarding the length of loans, "roll over" or "back to back" loans, and the
borrower's ability to repay the loan, in order to stop payday lenders from ensnaring consumer in a
debt trap.
Stop supporting predatory payday lenders. US Bank and Wells Fargo should stop providing
financing to predatory payday lenders. The banks should instead start offering affordable, small
loan products that meet the needs of their customers and should provide funding to programs that
help people escape the payday debt trap, such as Exodus Lending.
Reduce the burden of existing student debt. Low-to--moderate income families are in
desperate need of student debt relief through programs for forgiveness, refinancing at a lower
interest rate, and allowing student debt to be discharged in bankruptcy.
Page 44
Education
Invest the budget surplus in education. The state of Minnesota's almost $2 billion
surplus should be used to fund high-quality pre-kindergarten programs, to address racial
disparities in K-12, and to reduce in-state tuition at the UofM and at the Minnesota State
Colleges and Universities system.
Provide schools with the resources they need. State funding should be based on
student needs and the local district's capacity to meet those needs. This would ensure
that the districts that spend the most are those with the greatest student needs.
Maintain corporate property taxes. Minnesota's largest corporations are lobbying to
completely eliminate the state's property tax on business properties, which currently
brings in about $1 billion a year in revenue. Our schools and colleges are already
underfunded. We cannot risk any more cuts due to decreases in state revenue.
Make college more affordable. Greater state investment in public higher education
would help to ensure that Black and Latino students can afford to attend college without
incurring debt or experiencing financial hardship. Lower college costs would enable
more students of color to enroll in and complete college. At the same time, eliminating the
need to take on debt would increase the return to a college degree.
Establish more full-service schools. Full-service schools include within their buildings
the services and programs necessary to address the basic physical, mental and emotional
health needs of young people and their families.
Administer fewer, better standardized tests. The current system puts too much
emphasis on low-quality standardized tests that provide very limited useful information.
The current tests do not help to improve teaching. They do not allow students to
sufficiently demonstrate their knowledge, and they are not of use in increasing teacher or
school accountability. Instead, the current testing system results in "teaching to the test."
Adopt universal pre-kindergarten. High-quality pre-k programs provide immediate
benefits like higher graduation rates and fewer students in need of special education or
remedial services.
Improve Teacher Evaluations. School districts should partner with local teacher unions
to enhance the level of detail in teacher evaluations and ensure that teachers have a role
in determining review criteria and evaluating their peers.
Page 45
Environment/ Health
Shut down HERC. Close the Hennepin County Energy Resource Center (HERC) in order to
prevent hazardous pollutants from causing more harm to Minneapolis residents.
Divest from dirty and dangerous energy. To acknowledge the effects of climate change and
simultaneously derive profit from the corporations contributing to the problem is not only
morally objectionable, it is financially unwise, as fossil fuel markets falter and sustainable
companies begin to outperform. For this reason, individuals, institutions and governments
should divest the trillions of dollars from fossil fuel companies.
Stop financing the most extreme fossil fuel projects. Move away from financing extreme
extraction projects--fracking, tar sands and shale oil infrastructure and destructive coal mining.
Support a just and rapid transition to 100% renewables. While clean energy is on the rise,
given the urgency and the grave risks of climate change, we cannot afford to waste time. Rather
than simply waiting for developers to approach them, banks should actively seek out new
opportunities for renewable developments, and revise their lending requirements to make clean
energy more widely accessible, including to poor and vulnerable communities in the United States
and across the world.
Support the development of public policy that will enable swift, deep and mandatory
reductions in greenhouse gas emissions across sectors. Governments must have adequate
tools to address emission reductions in all sectors: to ensure energy conservation, build
sustainable transportation infrastructure and reduce the impact of agriculture on climate change.
Banks can use their considerable influence to push for bipartisan action in the United States,
including support for the Clean Power Plan, progressive taxation and appropriate carbon pricing.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reparations
Enact commission to study reparations for African-Americans. Congress should enact H.R. 40,
introduced by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), which would establish the Commission to Study Reparation
Proposals for African-Americans to examine slavery and discrimination in the colonies and the United
States from 1619 to the present and recommend appropriate remedies.
Page 46
VI. About
Page 47
VII. Endnotes
1
"2015's States with the Highest and Lowest Financial Gaps by Race/ Ethnicity," wallethub.com, Richie Bernardo
"The Racial Wealth Gap: Why Policy Matters," Demos and Institute for Assets and Social Policy, Brandies University, 2015
3
2014 American Community Survey
4
"Minnesota's home ownership gap worsens," Star Tribune, Jim Buchta, May 27, 2014
5
"Wachovia apologizes for slavery ties," CNNMoney, Katie Benner, June 2, 2005
6
Katie Benner, CNNMoney, June 2, 2005
7
"Deep racial disparities in the labor market," Insight News, Clark Biegler, October 6, 2015
8
Demos and Institute for Assets and Social Policy, 2015
9
"Justice Department Reaches Settlement with Wells Fargo," US Department of Justice press release, July 12, 2012
10
Annual report of the Twin Cities Housing Market -- Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors
11
12
13
"Wealth inequality has widened along racial, ethnic lines since end of Great Recession," Pew Research Center, Rakesh Kochnar and Richard Fry, December 12, 2014
14
15
16
"Black household income plunges in one year in Minnesota," Star Tribune, John Reinan and Mary Jo Webster, September 17, 2015
17
18
19
John Reinan and Mary Jo Webster, September 17, 2015
20
21
22
"Wall Street, Main Street, and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard," Center for Popular Democracy, March 2015
23
Insight News, Clark Biegler, October 6, 2015
24
United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, "States: people at work 1 to 34 hours, by gender, race, Hispanic or Latino ethnicity, usual full- or part-time
status, and reason for working less than 35 hours, 2014 annual averages
25
United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, "States: percent distribution of employed people, by occupation, gender, race, and Hispanic or Latino ethnicity,
2014 annual averages
26
"Affirmative Action Statistics Data Packet: Minneapolis-St. Paul MSA," Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development"
27
United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2014, State Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates
28
"Breaking Down Mass Incarceration in the 2010 Census: State by State Incarceration Rates by Race/Ethnicity," a Prison Policy Initiative, May 2014
29
"Report of the Sentencing Project to the United Nations Human Rights Committee Regarding Racial Disparities in the United States Criminal Justice System," August 2013
30
Prison Policy Initiative, May 2014
31
"Access to Paid Sick Time in Minneapolis," Institute for Women's Policy Research Briefing Paper IWPR #B350 , October 2015
32
"The threat of just-in-time scheduling," Aljazeera America, Sean McElwee, August 7, 2014
33
http://mn.gov/deed/business/locating-minnesota/companies-employers/top-employers.jsp, accessed February 7, 2016
34
https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Target-Salaries-E194.htm, accessed February 7, 2016
35
http://apps.startribune.com/top_100_exec_comp/topCeoView.php, accessed February 7, 2016
36
"Bank worker gets fired for using fake dime decades ago," Associated Press, August 30, 2012
37
"Lawsuit: Wells Fargo fired blacks over old convictions," Des Moines Register, Grant Rodgers, April 19, 2015
38
"Best Buy's Job Discrimination Revealed," Bruce Reilly, December 17, 2015, ficpmovement.wordpress.com
39
"Affirmative Action Statistics Data Packet: Minneapolis-St. Paul MSA," Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development,"
40
United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2014, State Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates
41
US Bank Salaries: Teller Hourly (n.d.) Retrieved September 10, 2015 from http://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/U-S-Bank-Salaries-E8937.htm
42
The Public Cost of Low-Wage Jobs in the Banking Industry, UC Berkeley Labor Center, October 27, 2014, Allegretto, Sylvia; Jacobs, Ken; GrahamSquire, Dave; and Scott, Megan Emiko.
43
"Retail at the Capitol," Minnesota Retailers Association, April 10, 2015, and "Why Minnesota legislators want to block local officials' ability to increase minimum wage,"
MinnPost, Peter Callaghan, June 9 , 2015
44
Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board
45
"Minnesota business groups upbeat about legislative session," Star Tribune, Patrick Coolican, June 19, 2015
46
"Overreaching in Minneapolis:," Pioneer Press, Editorial, October 16, 2015
47
Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board, "Principal Expenditures"
48
https://www.mnchamber.com/2015-2016-board-directors, accessed February 2016
49
Minnesota Chamber of Commerce 2015 Policies: Minnesota Fair Labor Standards Act & Wage Mandates"
50
"Minnesota Chamber of Commerce targets minimum wage," Pioneer Press, December 17, 2014
51
"MDH: Lack of Paid Sick Leave Leads to Spread of Disease," WCCO, Zac Farber, March 30, 2015
52
"Minnesota paid family leave advocates push for bill, face opposition," Pioneer Press, Doug Belden, February 17, 2015
53
http://www.mnretail.org/about/board, accessed February 7, 2016
54
2013 State Legislative Recap, the Retailers Edge, Minnesota Retailers Association
55
Ibid
56
"Retailers at the Capitol," The Retailers Edge, Minnesota Retailers Association, March 28, 2014
57
http://www.downtownmpls.com/about, accessed February 7, 2016
58
6 Democrats Betray 30 Million Workers on Minimum Wage, Daily Kos, Bud Meyers, March 19, 2013
59
Opensecrets.org, Center for Responsive Politics
2
Page 48
60
US Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Union Members - 2015," Press Release, January 28, 2016
"Mixed Views of Impact of Long-Term Decline in Union Membership," Pew Research Center, April 27, 2015
62
AFL-CIO Department for Professional Employees, "The Union Difference for Working Families Fact Sheet 2015" and U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics
"Median weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers by union affiliation and selected characteristics"
63
3M: Megan Carr, Thomas Geier, Timothy Hecht, William Hecht, Franklin Phifer, and Jeffrey Rageth.
Best Buy: Laura Bishop, Parker Brugge, Julie Hershey Carr, Lori Denham, Blake Hanlon, and Lisa Koutopes
Target: Susan Flack, Anika Hagenson, and Amy Oberhelman,
64
65
"Labor's Last Stand," Harper's Magazine, Ken Silverstein, July 2009
66
"The US Chamber's Anti-Union Agenda," America Rights at Work, March 14, 2013
67
"Minnesota's home ownership gap worsens," Jim Buchta, May 27, 2014
68
"Understanding Homeownership Disparities Among Racial and Ethnic Groups," Dr. Kim Skobba, University of Georgia, Report of the Minnesota Homeownership Center
69
"The Case for Reparations," The Atlantic, Ta-Nehisi Coates, June 2014
70
"Housing Discrimination as a basis for black reparations," Public Affairs Quarterly, Jonathan Kaplan and Andrew Valls, July 2007
71
"Don't Blame the Community Reinvestment Act," The American Prospect, Ellen Seidman, June 26, 2009
72
"Homeownership Rates for the United States and Regions," U.S. Census
73
"Wealth Gaps Rise to Record Highs Between Whites, Blacks, Hispanics," Pew Social Trends, Rakesh Kochhar, Richard Fry, and Paul Taylor, July 26, 2011
74
"Them That's Got Shall Get," American Prospect, Nathalie Baptiste, October 13, 2014
75
"The Dramatic Racial Bias of Subprime Lending During the Housing Boom," Citylab.com, Emily Badger, August 16, 2013
76
"Sub-Prime as a Black Catastrophe," American Prospect, Melvin Oliver, September 20, 2008
77
Wealth Gap Rise to Record Highs Between Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, Pew Research Center, July 26, 2011
78
"The Roots of the Widening Racial Wealth Gap: Explaining the Black-White Economic Divide," Institute on Assets and Social Policy, February 2013
79
"City of Minneapolis Number of Foreclosures by Community and Neighborhood,"
80
Annual report of the Twin Cities Housing Market -- Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors
81
Ibid
82
"Justice Department Reaches Settlement with Wells Fargo," US Department of Justice press release, July 12, 2012
83
Beverly Hadkins, et al v Morgan Stanley , et al, Case 1:12-cv-07667-HB,
84
Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data available via ffiec.gov
85
"Hotdish Politics: Payday lenders in the cross hairs," Star Tribune, Abby Simmons, April 5, 2014
86
"Demand for high-interest payday loans soars in Minnesota," MinnPost.com, January 28, 2013
87
CFPB Finds Four Out Of Five Payday Loans Are Rolled Over Or Renewed," consumerfinance.gov, March 25, 2014
88
"CFPB Takes Action Against ACE Cash Express for Pushing Payday Borrowers into Cycle of Debt," Consumer Financial Protection Bureau press release, July 10, 2014
89
Payday Lending in America: Who Borrows, Where They Borrow, and Why," Pew Charitable Trusts, July 2012
90
Ibid
91
"Wells Fargo, US Bank to end deposit advance loans, citing tougher regulation," Washington Post, Danielle Douglas, January 17, 2014
92
Ibid
93
Ibid
94
"State identifies 119 schools making significant progress in closing achievement gaps," Star Tribune, Alejandros Matos, September 1, 2015
95
"Public high school 4-year adjusted cohort graduation rate (ACGR), by race/ethnicity and selected demographics for the United States, the 50 states, and the District of
Columbia: School Year 2013-14
96
"Getting Prepared 2015: Recent high school graduates and developmental courses," Minnesota Office of Higher Education
97
"Minnesota Measures 2014: Report on Higher Education Performance," Minnesota Office of Higher Education
98
"The Student Debt Crisis," Center for American Progress, Anne Johnson, Tobin Van Ostern, and Abraham White, October 25, 2012
99
100
"The Disproportionate Burden of Student-Loan Debt on Minorities," The Atlantic, Sophie Quinton, May 5, 2015
101
"The Debt Divide: The Racial and Class Bias Behind the 'New Normal' of Student Borrowing," Demos, Mark Huelsman, May 19, 2015
102
Center for American Progress, October 25, 2012
103
104
University of Minnesota Office of Institutional Research
105
University of Minnesota 2006 and 2014 Annual Reports, in constant dollars adjusted for inflation
106
https://onestop.umn.edu/finances/costs_and_tuition/tuition_and_fees/archive/14-15_undergraduate.html,accessed February 2016
107
in constant dollars adjusted for inflation
108
"Crumbling Fiscal Foundation: A Decade of Decline in State Investment," Jeff Van Wychen, April 2013
109
"Education Finance Working Group Recommendations and Report," MN Department of Education, Nov 2012
110
"A Decade of School Funding Cuts Reversed," Minnesota 2020, Jeff Van Wychen, November 11, 2013
111
"District-by-District School Funding Trends," Minnesota 2020, November 2013
112
Minnesota Tax Handbook: A Profile of State and Local Taxes in Minnesota 2014 Edition, Minnesota Revenue Tax Research Division, January 2015
113
"State and Local Tax Collections by Major Tax Category," 2015, Minnesota Department of Revenue
114
"Session 2001: The Tax Debate," Minnesota Public Radio, Mark Zdechllik, July 3, 2011
115
Minnesota 2020 Property Tax Report 2002-2010, Jeff Van Wychen, August 2010
116
Ibid
117
Ibid
118
Citizens for Tax Justice, Corporate Tax Explorer, http://ctj.org/corporatetaxdodgers/tax-dodgers-index.php, accessed September 28, 2015
119
Ibid
120
Ibid
61
Page 49
121
ibid
University of Minnesota 2007 Annual Report
124
125
126
127
128
Independent School District No. 625 Financial Statements and Supplemental Information, Year Ended June 30, 2014
129
Total fees for Series 2015A, 2015B, 2015C, 2014A, 2013B, 2013A, 2012B, 2012A, 2011C, 2011A, 2010C, 2010B, 2010A, 2009D, 2009C, 2009B, 2009A, 2008B, 2008A,
2007A, 2006A, and 2006B
130
Annual average from 2006 to 2014 from St. Paul Public Schools Annual Financial Report and Audit Report
131
Wells Fargo: Series 2015B, Series 2013B, Series 2012B
132
"Private Student Lenders and Untended Debt," mainstreet.com, John Sandman, November 11, 2013
133
"Wells Fargo Sells Federal Student Loans to Navient," Wells Fargo press release, November 13, 2014
134
"Wells Fargo's Not Scared of Student Lending Like Other Banks," Wall Street Cheat Sheet, Meghan Foley, September 10, 2013
135
Wells Fargo 2014 Annual Report
136
137
138
https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/types/loans/interest-rates#what-are-the-interest-rates-of-federal-student-loans, accessed February 2016
139
https://www.wellsfargo.com/student/collegiate-loans/, accessed February 7, 2016
140
Minnesota tax handbook: a profile of state and local taxes in Minnesota
141
"Dayton tax policy would send Minnesota back near top of U.S. rankings," MinnPost, Steven Dornfeld, April 2, 2013
142
"MNSCU and University of Minnesota hope to extend tuition freeze," Minnesota Public Radio, Alex Friedrich, December 30, 2014
143
"Budget bills passed during special session avert shutdown," Minnesota Budget Project, June 15, 2015
144
"Senate GOP tax bill slashes local government aid," Minnesota Public Radio, Tim Pugmire, March 23, 2011
145
"Minnesota GOP wants to cut business property taxes," Pioneer Press, Bill Salisbury, February 11,2012
146
"Big business big winners in Minnesota property tax fight, "Pioneer Press, J. Patrick Coolican, April 28,2015
147
Based on 2015 Minnesota State General Property Tax Amounts
148
"Minnesota's Future: World-class Schools, World-class Jobs," Minnesota Business Partnership and Itasca Project
149
The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education, Diane Ravitch, 2010
150
Minnesota Business Partnership and Itasca Project
151
"Head of MN Business Partnership reflects on state of the workforce," Southwest Journal, Sarah McKenzie, February 5, 2016
152
"Why I Stopped Writing Recommendation Letters for Teach for America," www.slate.com, Catherine Michan, October 9, 2013
153
New York Times, February 2, 2013, "More Lessons about Charter Schools"
154
"Minnesota businesses step up to help Minneapolis schools and students," Minnesota Business Partnership, October 7, 2014
155
"Innovative Partnership Enables Expansion of Effective Charter Schools in Minneapolis," Minnesota Business Partnership press release
156
"City of Oakland Sues Wells Fargo over predatory lending," San Francisco Business Times, Mark Calvey, September 22, 2015
157
Ibid
158
"Frequent Residential Mobility and Young Children's Well-Being," Child Trends Research Brief, January 2012
159
"Report from Minnesota's Twin Cities Examines Racial Health Disparities, Recommends Solutions, Separate State Effort Examines Same Issue," June 11, 2009, KHN
Morning Brief
160
"'Structural racism' blamed for some of state's severe health disparities," Minnesota Public Radio, Lorna Benson and Laura Yuen, January 30, 2014
161
"Asthma and Air Quality," City of Minneapolis Health Department
162
"Racial Disparities in Minnesota: A Factsheet Produced by the Minneapolis Foundation," July 2006.
163
"Minneapolis Burning," Downtown Journal, Ryan Stopera, September 22, 2015
164
"Asthma and Air Pollution," Natural Resources Defense Council, January 28, 2014
165
Covanta Holding Corp, 2014 Form 10-K, Form 8-K filed February 8, 2007; December 1, 2010; and March 19, 2012.
166
"How Climate Change Affects People of Color," theroot.com , Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, March 3, 2013
167
NAACP Fact Sheet "The Hidden Consequences of Climate Change"
168
Ibid
169
theroot.com, March 3, 2013
170
"Are African-Americans More Vulnerable to Climate Change," Ebony, Dr. J. Marshall Shepherd, February 11, 2013
171
All Risk, No Reward: The Alberta Clipper Tar Sands Pipeline Expansion, Sierra Club, Sarah Milne, 2014
172
"A Risky Business: Tar Sands, Indigenous Rights, and RBS," UK Tar Sands Network, May 2011
173
"Midcoast Energy Partners, L.P. Form S-3 Registration Statement filed December 9, 2014 with the US Securities
174
See Appendix B
175
Alpha Natural Resources and Patriot Coal Company
176
See Appendix B
177
"Study finds natural gas no cleaner than coal," Al Jazeera, Tarek Bazley, October 16, 2014
178
See Appendix C. Top ten U.S. oil and gas companies based on market value as of 2015 from Statista.com
179
"Xcel Energy's Sherburne County Power Plant is Minnesota's Biggest Global Warming Polluter," Environment Minnesota press release, September 10, 2013
180
"Xcel Energy says it plans to retire 2 of its 3 coal-fired units at Sherco power plant," Star Tribune, Steve Karnowski and Kyle Potter, October 2, 12015
181
"Clean Energy Plan shows savings from closing Sherco," Fresh Energy, July 7, 2015
182
Star Tribune, October 2, 2015
122
123
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NO MORE BUSINESS AS USUAL

How the State's Most Powerful Corporations Have

Minnesotans for a Fair Economy

Minnesotans for a Fair Economy -- "No More Business As Usual"

The 1% vs. Democracy in Minnesota

Minnesotans for a Fair Economy -- "No More Business As Usual"

The unemployment rate for

Homeowners in North Minneapolis who managed to avoid foreclosure saw the

III. The Racial Wealth Gap

In 2013, the net worth

Minnesotans for a Fair Economy -- "No More Business As Usual"

What are the drivers of these huge income gaps?

Minnesotans for a Fair Economy -- "No More Business As Usual"

Workers of color in Minnesota are also more likely than white

Workers of color in Minnesota are more heavily concentrated

Number of jobs held by

African-Americans in Minnesota are eleven times more likely than

Incarceration Rates by Race/Ethnicity, 201030

Workers of color in Minneapolis are less likely than white workers to

Minnesotans for a Fair Economy -- "No More Business As Usual"

Many of the positions at these corporations pay poverty wages.

Average Hourly Wage34

Meanwhile, Minnesota's largest corporations pay their CEOs extravagantly.

There is a pending lawsuit by seven African-American former employees against Wells

managers found out, they fired the general manager.38

The group has taken an active role in opposing the Minneapolis

The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce is the state's largest business advocacy

The Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce is chaired by an executive from Xcel

of Commerce coordinated the Workplace Fairness Coalition, which was formed to

Federal Minimum Wage

The Union Difference

African-Americans have the lowest home

Homeownership Rates by Race/Ethnicity, 201268

U.S Homeownership Rates

For African-Americans and Latinos in particular, there was a direct relationship

2005-2006 Twin Cities Metro Area Refinance Loans

The subprime foreclosure crisis had a devastating impact on people of color.

two-thirds of the Latino

community's total wealth

Who Uses Payday Loans

Minnesota has one of the largest educational achievement gaps between

Public High School 4 year graduation rates

Minnesotans for a Fair Economy -- "No More Business As Usual"

Percent of Population Age 25 and Older with Degress

Minnesota College Degree Attainment, 201297

Bachelors Degree or Higher

Seventy-four percent of Latino students who left college without finishing a

In 2013, 42 percent of African American families had student loans, compared

Four out of five Black

Rate of borrowing and average student debt level by race103

Minnesotans for a Fair Economy -- "No More Business As Usual"

MN Department of Revenue, Tax Research Division, May 11, 2015

Corporate Tax Avoidance 2008 - 2012121

Minnesotans for a Fair Economy -- "No More Business As Usual"

Personal Income Taxes

In 2011, the Republican-controlled House and Senate voted to eliminate the

Amount that would be gained annually with

The Corporate Education Agenda

Minnesotans for a Fair Economy -- "No More Business As Usual"

IV. Environment/ Health

Nationally, sixty-eight percent of African-Americans live within 30 miles of a coal

Coal is the main source of carbon emissions worldwide. It contributes massively to