Correspondence 1992-1993 Waldron

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12 The distribution of grants did show strong geographic patterns. Figure 1 shows the . distribution of grants across the state for the nearly four years this study covered. St. Louis County which includes the Iron Range, the home of the governor and several senior legislators, received twenty grants, many more than any other part of the state. The Iron Range suffered severely from the collapse of the market for iron ore in the early 1980s. In spring 1983 the unemployment rate reached a high of 33 percent.�' However, despite the region's problems in the early 1980s, the area was not more depressed than many other parts of the state by 1986. As of 1986 St. Louis County ranked eighteenth highest out of 87 ' counties in average earnings per job, although in part because unempl��yment was still high (9.1 percent compared to 5.3 percent for the state--the fourteenth highesr county unemployment rate), the county ranlced fifty-eighth highest among the counties in personal income per capita.�� The county did better than these rankings in f�nding received; 66 counties received fewer grant dollars per capita.� The county was not "distressed" in 1987 according to criteria that legisladon directed the Department of Trade and Economic Development to us�.24 When wages were adjusted for estimated living costs, "real" wages 21�Jnemployment rate for "halaace of St. Louis County�" excluding Duluth, in `Northesstern Minaesota Labor Market Review,' Mi�� Department of Economic Security, Duluth, MN, monthly 1982-84. �iJ.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, regional oconomic profile data for Minaesota, unpublished; Miunesota Department of Jobs aad Training, "State and qrea I,,abo� Force Estimat�s, January 1980-December 1987," e� Resrarch and Statistics Office, St. Paul, MN, Aug. 1988 (revised Sept. 1988). �'If St. Louis County 6ad receivod fuading consistent with its avemge earnings per job� only 17 couaties would have received fewer dollars per capita, If St. Louis County had received fuading oa tbe basis of per capita income, 57 counties would have roceived fewer prognm dollars per capita. �"Lee Murmich to Joe Samargia �ad Thomas Gillaspy, memorandum regarding distressed county data and actachmeacs, 28 July 1988. A county designaccd as "economically distressed" in July 1988 eithar (1) 6ad an unemployment rate over 10 perceat for May 1987-April 1988, or (2) had an unemployment rate 10 percent above the statewide unemployment race and had at least 20 percent of employment in agriculture-related industries.