The Consumer Price Index for all consumers provides us with the ability to adjust out the effects of the expanded money supply otherwise known as inflation. The inflation adjusted budget allows us to compare the expansion of State Government without the inflation effects.
Here is the graph of Historical Expenditures: All Funds from the MMB website.
http://www.mmb.state.mn.us/doc/budget/report-spend/july09.pdf
To keep the lawyers from invading my space, some caveats are in order. I decided to choose 1984 as the 100% mark because it was after the troubling biennium that created the onerous Unitary Method of taxing multi-state corporations. Budget and CPI data is current through 2009. Post 2009 Budget data is provided by the MMB website link and post 2009 CPI data adds 2%/year inflation through 2013.
Summary: The MN budget, adjusted for inflation, has doubled since 1984. Click on the graph to view in full size.
