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Just a 20-minute commute from Minneapolis and St. Paul, Eagan is often seen as a bedroom community. But there are a lot of people who commute to Eagan too, to work for large firms like Thomson Reuters, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Coca-Cola. That's helped keep the unemployment rate here well below the national average. Granted, Minnesota winters are brutal, but Eagan residents make up for it during the summer, spending time in the hundreds of lakes and parks that dot the city, as well as at Cascade Bay, Minnesota's largest outdoor water park. -- L.M.
Due to an error by our data provider, an earlier version listed incorrect stats for this city's number of colleges.
(3) Crime incidences are estimates based on FBI 2011 Universal Crime and incidence reports, OnBoard analysis.
(I) Income tax notes:
17 states have statutory provision for automatically adjusting to the rate of inflation the dollar values of the income tax brackets, standard deductions, and/or personal exemptions. Massachusetts, Michigan, and Nebraska index the personal exemption only. Oregon does not index the income brackets for $125,000 and over. Because the inflation adjustments for 2012 are not yet available in some cases, the table may report the 2011 amounts. These states use the personal exemption amounts provided in the federal Internal Revenue Code. The income brackets reported for Minnesota are for single individuals. For married couples filing jointly, the same tax rates apply to income brackets ranging from $34,590, to $137,431.
Using statistics from data services company Onboard Informatics, we crunched the numbers in order to zero in on America's best small cities for families. (Last year, we looked at small towns, with populations between 8,500 and 50,000.)
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