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If Dave ran on a platform of no public funding for the stadium, then increasing the cost of food and beverage OR increasing taxes on some segments of the public are all PUBLIC FUNDING. Where's Renee with her clever methods of avoiding public funding? Or did we never get around to discussing how to actually achieve the pie-in-the-sky stadium? I wonder why that is.
It doesn't matter if you're taxing the rich, taxing the poor or taxing everyone. If it's not a voluntary contribution, then it's not voluntary. If a rich person doesn't pay their taxes, they get their wages garnished, their tax refund garnished, and/or arrested just like a plebian.
I would also like to contest that making over $50,000 is CEO level. It's not. If you want to get into the realm of CEO salaries, then you need to aim higher. Even then, much of the "salary" for a CEO is hidden in stock, benefits, pension, etc. so they can avoid taxes on it. Once you have this level of economic clout, it becomes very rewarding to figure out how to avoid taxes. If an extra 5% or more is assessed in a localized area like downtown, you'll see the CEOs simply moving their listed "place of work" outside that area. It's no different than some of the "I really live in district X" we saw just a few months ago, and this time for higher stakes.
Some of John Birrenbach's comments confuse me - on the one hand, all these people working in downtown are so rich on their fat salaries that they are arrogant and full of themselves... "rich clowns". On the other hand, they have very limited lunch periods and aren't able to leave downtown to eat. Which is it? Are they overly powerful or totally powerless?
As for who I'd like to see squeal, I'd like to see the people who plan to go to the stadium pay for it by voluntary contributions (tickets, seat fees, donations, whatever). I note that we paid for the Ice Palace with donated labor. I realize a stadium is a lot bigger deal. But surely there are some companies out there who would build one if they got a share of it. But wait! We couldn't GIVE them any part of it, could we? Because the city is building this stadium so it can give it to the team (well, except for maintenance duties and all those pesky things you have to pay for - the team/Pohlad/whoever only wants the parts of the stadium that pay THEM).
Dave put the shoe on the other foot? Not. I really doubt that downtown folks making more than $50,000 a year were, AS A CLASS, the main ones lobbying to have a stadium. He would have succeeded if he'd just said what so many others have said, which is to make the team/Pohlad/whoever wants the stadium pay for it themselves. Instead, Thune singled out another group who mostly had nothing to do with the stadium.
I do appreciate that such a manuever has shown the two-faced nature of this funding discussion, though that was already quite apparent to me.
On an unrelated issue, I followed a link in one of these emails and finally saw the eDemocracy page, charter, etc. I was unaware that the reason you guys only discuss city council stuff is because... ::drum roll:: the list is only supposed to discuss city council stuff! LOL. I've told three or four other people about this list and a couple of them have joined. There isn't much visibility of your home page/eDemocracy page. Maybe when you give someone membership, you should send them a letter up front that describes the purpose of the list and requires them to go to the home page and click a "I Agree" to the terms and conditions of the list, or something like that?
You guys have some really great resource links all collected in one place. Kudos for that! But I've been on the list for months and didn't know it existed. There seems to be a problem with visibility, or advertising, or something.
Mary Baker East Side
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