A new report from a national organization about Minnesota rents and renters should be required reading for legislators contemplating a cut in the state's renter's credit to finance a phase-out of the state business property tax. It says that among Midwestern states, Minnesota has the largest gap between average rent and average wages.

The report by the National Low-Income Housing Coalition pegged the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Minnesota at $806 per month. The coalition deems rent "affordable" if it does not exceed 30 percent of a renter's income. To pay that average rent without exceeding the 30-percent threshhold, a household must earn $32,250 per year, or $15.50 per hour in a 40-hour per week job, it says.

But, the report says, the average hourly wage of Minnesota renters is $12.17. That suggests that a large share of Minnesota renters are paying more than 30 percent of their incomes for housing, and can ill afford the reduction in the property tax refund for low-income renters that House Republicans contemplate.

Years ago, President Phil Davis of Minneapolis Community and Technical College told me that before long, workers who lack at least two years of post-secondary education would not be able to afford to rent two-bedroom apartments in the Twin Cities. That day may have arrived. The statewide business property tax that Republicans hope to eliminate was created in 2001 to bolster education funding as local education levies were cut. Clearly, that funding is needed more than ever, and asking poor renters to give up assistance so businesses can avoid paying for it seems misdirected.