John Harris wrote:
Why does minneapolis need fight this? It is a better deal for the city, having a much smaller county wide tax. It would be better if they pushed a 7 county tax through but this hennepin county tax was a tough enough sell as it is. The city gets the stadium and can't be blamed for the tax increase because the county did it.
This is an important point. This is a much easier deal for everyone to swallow. Even Sviggum is on board.
It will be interesting to see how Pawlenty plays this. If he authorizes a county tax, is he breaking his pledge? Lord knows I've wanted him to break it for years. Is he afraid that it might open the floodgates? It would explain why no one wants to take up this deal until the budgets are passed.
Of all the stadium proposals I've heard, this one seems to be the most reasonable. I believe it is good for the city to keep the team downtown where it will support continued growth and revitilization of the city. No, it's not a panacea but I believe it does make a diffence. I wish there was some clause about partial (or full, once Pohlad sells) public ownership of the team, though.
My only concern with this is whether it will impact efforts to raise sales taxes for other needed services. As you know, I've been pounding the pavement about public transportation. A metro-wide sales tax is the most feasible way of building the kind of transportation system we need. Will a .15% sales tax make it more difficult to pass a half-cent metro-wide sales tax for public transportation?
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