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PRESS RELEASE: "SAY IT AIN'T SO, JOE !!" Forms to put Stadium Question on St. Paul Ballot
FEBRUARY 13, 2004 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
"SAY IT AIN'T SO, JOE !!" AD HOC CITIZENS GROUP FORMS IN ST. PAUL.
TO OPPOSE STADIUM PROPOSAL BY MEANS OF CITY CHARTER AMENDMENT
In 1919 on learning of a scheme to rig the World Series by Shoeless Joe Jackson and his Chicago White Sox teammates, the public cried out "SAY IT AIN'T SO, JOE !!". Today another scandal plagues major league sports in the form of team demands for huge public subsidies for new stadiums. In St. Paul the voters will now be given a final chance to "SAY IT ISN'T SO !!".
An Ad Hoc group of St. Paul residents announced the launch today of an effort to oppose the public financing of any major professional sports facility to be built in St. Paul. The group is non-partisan and composed of residents across a broad landscape of the political and economic spectrums in St. Paul including supporters of the Independent, Green, Republican, and Democratic political parties, as well as small business owners and ordinary citizens who want to put an end to the annual torment of these stadium debates. Organizers for the group include Patrick Hill, Greg Copeland, Elizabeth Dickinson, and Phil Fuehrer. While not acting as official speakers for their political parties, organizers wish to draw attention to their diverse party backgrounds to show the breadth of opposition to massive expenditures of public funds for new stadiums.
"Whether one supports a stadium or not, submitting the question to the democratic process is the American way" asserted Fuehrer. "Advocates on both sides of this issue continue to claim to speak for the people and our proposal will finally allow the opinion of the voters to be heard and put an end to the reckless seizure of the "average Joe's" voice. We feel confident that just as in 1999 on the question of support for huge public subsidies the "average Joe" will "SAY IT AIN'T SO."
Copeland stated that "A new stadium is a bad business decision or the Twins would have self-financed and built it themselves using the extraordinary low interest rates and real estate expertise available to owner Carl Pohlad through his banking empire. If they make payments for stadium rentals, those are easily converted to mortgage payments. If it's bad business for the private sector then it must be equally bad business for the public sector."
"Public financing for this risky venture is especially onerous in this painful period of economic stagnation and job losses" said Dickinson. "The wanton disregard of people's needs just has to stop. How can we possibly ask St. Paul citizens to contribute $13 million dollars a year for the next 30 years to support an industry of multi-million dollar employees and billion dollar owners while residents of this town making $10 an hour are told to fend for themselves."
The effort will undertake to collect the approximately 5500 signatures necessary to amend the city charter to cap the city's expenditures for professional sports facilities in much the same way a similar effort in Minneapolis succeeded in limiting that city's contribution to $10 million. "We will collect signatures from throughout the city" stated Hill. "We're certain to be outspent $1000 to $1 by the big money proponents" declared Dickinson. "so we're going to need a lot of volunteers."
"This debate over a new Twins stadium has been going on at the legislature since 1995" noted Hill, "We're tired of the annual torture and the waste of legislative time and resources this discussion consumes. The City Charter provides St. Paul residents with a means of removing themselves as targets through the process of amendment, and we intend to exercise that 'option clause' in our contract with the city, regardless of what the legislature does."
CONTACTS: PATRICK HILL 651.293.4738 (day) 651.772.2027 (eves) ; Elizabeth Dickinson 651.312.0616 Email [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Dennis Hill West 7th Street Ward 2
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