The Strib editorial board as long been a supporter of a new ballpark for the Twins and Friday's Strib editorial on locating the Twins stadium is half right; the location of any new stadium shouldn't be determined by politics. What the paper failed to mention when touting the regional referendums in Denver, Milwaukee and other cities is that these regional referendums were for regional taxes. None of these projects was financed (even in part) by a downtown-only tax. Thankfully, some of our city representatives were fighting against a downtown tax last round. Hopefully when the next round of ballpark negotiations begin, the Strib, Minneapolis and Hennepin County will all champion a regional tax or none at all. According to ballparks.com, here's how the public portion of these ballparks was financed: Coors Field, Denver - 0.10% sales tax in six-county region Miller Park, Milwaukee - 0.10% sales tax in five-county region Jacobs Field, Cleveland - county-wide tax on cigarettes and alcohol Astros Field, Houston - 2% county-wide hotel tax and 5% rental car tax Safeco Field, Seattle - 0.50% county-wide restaurant tax plus rental car tax Pacific Bell Park, San Francisco - public money limited to $10 million TIF _______________________________________ 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
