I think you may have confused Ventura's plan with an earlier one, Bruce. There's no "borrowing" of deposits in his plan - at least not from the State. Although the Twins would be free to raise funds through naming rights, marketing promotions, or whatever as Dean pointed out.
I don't have specific numbers I can throw out, but 8.5% is not at all unrealistic for a return if a balanced investment plan is used, even in hard times. One thing to note is that the investment fund that would be started with the $165 million would actually be overseen by the Twins, not the State. On one hand, you have to figure that gives the Twins some incentive to manage it carefully, since they'd have to make up any shortfall, but I'd feel better knowing some details on there being some third-party oversight to prevent excessive risk-taking. With regards to Terrell's post earlier, I'd like to point out that the bill he cites caps a local food/beverage tax at 5%, meaning it cannot exceed that. It doesn't mean it has to be that high. The cap is probably in there to make sure that local governments don't go completely nuts trying to outbid one another for the ballpark location. Also, while I'd really like to see strictly user fees (parking/ticket surcharges) in conjunction with the initial investment, I have to admit that I'd prefer a Minneapolis-wide tax (or St. Paul-wide, if they got the ballpark) over something that was downtown-only. Terrell and others have made great points that downtown residents have already been hit with more than their fair share of extra taxes for things like the Convention Center (and how many of them ever visit it?). Better to spread out the affected area to keep the percentage down. Maybe something county-wide is not out of the question, but I'm reasonably sure state-wide would be. Hopefully a mechanism for user fees can be developed that renders a food/beverage tax unnecessary or could have such a short life that it could be converted to a means for raising funds for housing or arts as Dean suggested (or a Planetarium, since that looks dead for bonding this year?) Mark Snyder Ward 1/Windom Park [EMAIL PROTECTED] On 3/21/02 4:27 PM, "Bruce Gaarder" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > If I remember what has been reported in the paper, the Twins want to "borrow" > the so-called non-refundable deposit of $165 million for the ball palace > from the state because they wouldn't have the hard cash. > > Doesn't seem to help protect the public. > > Then there is the supposed 8.5% return on the money that the state is > supposed to reap. Does anyone know the return that the state currently > gets on various investment funds, like pensions, etc.? As has been said, > expecting an annual return like that in hard times seems more than > optimistic. > > Bruce Gaarder > Highland Park Saint Paul > [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________ 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
