-----Original Message----- From: David Lillehaug According to a Steve Brandt article, more than 19,000 people live in downtown and 163,000 work downtown, according to figures from the Downtown Council. Does anyone have any figures on what downtown residents and workers spend on food unrelated to attending Twins games? Is it really fair to focus a stadium tax on the people who dine in their own neighborhood and on the workers who buy lunch in the skyways?
[TB] Being one of those who both lives and often works downtown, I will be objecting to any tax that applies only in my neighborhood. I have the same objection to the sales tax that supports the Minneapolis Convention Center. I estimate that none of what I spend on resturant meals (of which probably 75% is in the downtown area) is related to attending Twins games or Convention Center events. The 19,000 people that live downtown exceed the population of most of the cities and towns in Minnesota and I seriously doubt that any of those cities or towns would be interested in paying for either a Convention Center or baseball stadium. And while we're looking at the downtown taxing district, why does it exclude the Minneapolis Women's Club but include everything on all sides of it? (apparently they wanted to get 510 Resturant in). Even worse, most of the higher tax district was represented by Dee Long in the Legislature when it passed (I don't remember if she was Speaker or Chair of the Tax Committee at the time) and she didn't object. Can you imagine a State Rep. from Roseau or Thief River Falls doing that? Another question: Any idea what percentage of the meals purchased downtown are by people who live and work downtown as opposed to visitors? I'm with David, its an unfair focus. Terrell Brown Loring Park _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
