Jeanne has hit the magic nail on the head with her observations and questions. I will not hold my breath for my elected officials to come forward with the numbers on this. I imagine someone good with numbers on this list will do that for us. I guess corporate welfare is OK, but housing homeless isn't. Ron Leurquin Nokomis East
Jeanne wrote: It is not clear what the net benefit is to Minneapolis of the recent decision by Allina to relocate employees and develop a headquarters at the Sears sight. I am not anti-Allina, for it has been a good health care provider for me personally. But, I do not support its recent corporate policies and actions requiring infrastructure improvements at 35W and taxpayer funding to underwrite its headquarters at the Sears site. While it's been the traditional development game, city competing against city (and state against state) for business is a zero sum game in the bigger picture. And while corporations benefit financially, local tax payers lose. Is it really true that big corporations can't pay their way? Most play this game because cities compete for them, regardless of financial need. It made sense for Allina to locate in Minneapolis because there is vacant property next to one of its primary facilities. We'll never be told, but I'm curious to know if Allina would have located at the Sear's site regardless of this city subsidy. Do Minneapolis residents really support these corporate subsidy activities? Would they have advocated for City support for the Access Project (as demanded by Allina), knowing the City's plan to underwrite Allina's move to the Sears site? We were not told of this two weeks ago when the City voted to support the 35W Access Project. How does this funding scheme differ in principle from the Target development downtown, a fundamental issue the mayor campaigned on (and in great part won on). Bottom line: I'd like to see a balance sheet from the City showing net benefit/loss to the community for the Allina headquarters project. What are the public dollars going in (property tax relief and beyond [e.g., for Ryan to development the site] and what are the expected returns over a 5-10 year timeline? REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
