Jenny Heiser wrote: I believe [Phyllis Kahn] submitted legislation for consideration about community ownership. Perhaps my memory is faulty about this. I will check the Mpls. List archives.
and David Brauer wrote: I'm pretty sure she has. And it's a great idea! If you look at City Pages' analysis of the size of the Twins' operating profit in a new stadium, the idea of owning the ballclub makes more sense than ever. The CO plan is not pure public ownership � there can be a single managing partner who, I believe, can own 30 percent of the club with the public owning the rest. That eliminates the "do you want the legislature running the team?" argument. The public's cash and majority stock ownership is ballast to assure we can't be held hostage in a move......The managing partner/public ownership plan is a way to work within sports rules. I disagree with Dean Carlson that baseball would reject it. I think the details could easily be worked out.
Don sez:
Thanks for bringing this up! Yes, Sen. Ellen Anderson (DFL-St. Paul) and Rep. Phyllis Kahn (DFL-Minneapolis) are the chief authors in their respective houses of this bill. Both bills have passed the appropriate committees and are pending on the floor, and there is still plenty of time to pass them this session.
David is correct, there is to be a managing partner with 25% to 35% of the interest in the team. This complies with the needs of Major League Baseball, which wants to have a single representatives to go to their meetings
Again, one of the essential components of the Community Ownership concept is that with ordinary Minnesotans owning shares of the stock, and with the requirement that the stockholders get to vote before a move can be made, this plan really "takes the wheels" off the team, and keeps them in Minnesota. That's really an essentiall component BEFORE we embark on a new stadium project.
Here is a link to Senate File 900, Ellen's bill (the two bills are the same):
http://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/bin/bldbill.php?bill=S0900.0&session=ls84
Ellen's bill passed the Senate in 2004 but was not taken up in the House. We
hope that both bills will pass the floor in the next few days.
Don Jorovsky Senator Ellen Anderson's office
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