Vicky writes (not in all caps in this part, fortunately): > In 2002, the legislature sent Minneapolis an extra $80+ million > to pay down some of the Convention Center debt so that Moody's and Standard > & Poors would leave your credit rating in tact - for a while anyway.
The state ponied up less than one-third the cost of the Convention Center - which is clearly a statewide asset from which the state gets much more taxes than the city. Meanwhile, the state paid for ALL of Xcel Energy Center. That means Minneapolis uses its half-cent sales tax to pay off a statewide asset, while St. Paul uses its half-cent sales tax to... keep state aid reductions off the property tax by shifting sales taxes to its operating budget. As for dependency on other governments: St. Paul is, by far, the biggest recipient of fiscal disparities money (property taxes from new metro development that's shifted to slow-growing or high-needs community) - $20 million worth in 2004...compared to Minneapolis's $3.7 million. (PS Businesses aren't leaving the Minneapolis or our fair city's fiscal-disparities payment would be far higher than $3 million.) Minneapolis has fiscal misdeeds to atone for - but almost all are of past regimes, and the current group is paying off the credit card... so future generations aren't further burdened by the mistakes of the past. Bottom line: ignoring St. Paul's lavish metro/state support is to ignore important context...especially if you're only going to flay Minneapolis as a ward of other governments. David Brauer Kingfield 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
