Walt Cygan wrote: "The reasoning for limiting it to a city and not allowing county involvement is bizarre, however. Wouldn't you want to maximize your chances of some locality approving the referendum?" ---------------
I believe the reason the stadium war may be limited to cities is that Ron Abrams (R-Minnetonka) opposes any county-wide tax to fund the stadium and he controls the tax committee. He doesn't want a new county-wide sales tax and he doesn't want the county on the hook for any revenue shortfalls. It's his way of keeping Hennepin County out of the debate. Unfortunately, it seems some of our elected officials are still willing to circumvent the city's $10 million cap on stadium funding by using a county-wide referendum to pass a downtown-only tax. I think the last Hennepin County proposal was for a 0.25% increase food/beverage tax county-wide but a 1.00% increase in downtown. Economists have said the best way to finance a stadium with taxes is to impose a very low, broad-based tax (i.e., 0.05% tax region-wide). The problem is that region doesn't want to pay for the regional asset of being a "major league city." John Rocker Calhoun _______________________________________ 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
