Brauer: The city retains a triple-A rating, the highest investment grade. The bond houses don't give that to bankrupt cities.
Heller: Not so fast. S & P rated the Enron bonds AAA until six weeks prior to its bankruptcy. The rating agencies will say anything for a large enough fee. Also, the City is claiming $27 billion of "market value" for the purpose of calculating debt capacity. What a joke! If Standard & Poors knew that Minneapolis only collects $250 million in property taxes, and one-third of that goes into TIF districts, the Agency would drop the rating in a New York minute. Brauer: City residents and businesses pay more to the state than they get back in spending. Heller: You keep saying this, but it's not true. Don't forget that Governor Pawlenty sent $80 million to Minneapolis last year to "help" with the Convention Center debt. That was over and above the nearly $70 million in Local Government Aid. State income taxes collected have NOTHING to do with Minneapolis. Retail sales have been dropping in Minneapolis according to the Strib, thus less sales tax receipts. Minneapolis spends $1.2 billion annually. Despite all of the so-called budget "cuts", Minneapolis spending has NOT GONE DOWN. How do you explain this? I suggest you look into the Truth in Taxation budget that was distributed by the City last month. Let's find out where more than $200 million of unidentified spending is going. Vicky Heller North Oaks and Cedar-Riverside 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
