What a joke! I hope that the City Council candidates have the good sense to condemn this deal. Once again, Minneapolis is saddled with the lion's share of expenses for another useless piece of corporate welfare. County-wide tax be hanged - that does not begin to address the real costs of the stadium to the people of Minneapolis.
Whose roads will be torn up and detoured for construction? Who is going to have to live with yet another stadium - and its drain on resources from police to the Parks department - squatting in their midst? Who will be dealing with the multitude of corporate fat-cat demands in coming years, from nicer landscaping to more parking to a RETRACTABLE ROOF for the stupid thing? Supporting this scheme means supporting huge costs to be borne by the City of Minneapolis, not the county, long into the future. Why should any responsible Minneapolis official (or hopeful) write that kind of blank check? Once the stadium is built, the city's related costs will keep piling until the day it is torn down. The County Commissioners could actually impress us with a .15% county-wide tax for education or health care instead. Oh, yeah - but the people they're supposed to be serving don't come with highly-paid lobbyists. Little Johnny and Mary will have to make do with sharing a textbook this year, and will only see their mom a couple of hours a day because she has to bus so far for a welfare to work program to keep food on the table and minimum health coverage - but their family will be forced to pony up for ONE CORPORATION'S $200-million-plus freebie from the county. The commissioners - especially McLaughlin, whose participation in making this deal is a betrayal of the city for which he wants to be mayor - should be ashamed. Roxana Orrell Central >Message: 1 >Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2005 21:14:54 -0500 >From: "Dean Carlson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: Re: [Mpls] County, Twins have ballpark deal >To: <[email protected]> > >I for one hope this City jumps on board with this one, in fact I would >encourage all City Council candidates to tell us where they stand (Mayoral >candidates too). > >I've argued that a region-wide sales tax is the way to go for stadium >financing. Wisconsin did it for the Brewers and Packers, Denver did it for >their beautiful ball park (paid off in 10 years!). The best way would have >been to levy a .10 percent sales tax on the 9 county metro area, half go to >stadiums the other half to affordable housing, education, arts, >transportation (your pet issue here). As others have posted the beauty of >this arrangement is that Hennepin County is the economic force of the >region. So actually those Japanese tourists visiting the MOA and those >suburbanites who work downtown will be paying for the stadium as well. > >I will be encouraging my state senator and representative to support this >bill. I know a lot of other Hennepin County residents who will be doing the >same. > >Dean E. Carlson >Ward 10, East Harriet REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact 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 Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[email protected] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
