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May 02, 2006
Minnesota senate panel to Twins: Vote or die
The Minnesota state senate was supposed to be a relative walk in the park for the Twins stadium bill, but that's sure not how it's turning out. First senators threw a new regional sales-tax plan and a Vikings stadium into the mix; and now yesterday, the senate taxes committee voted 12-0 to require a public referendum before Hennepin County can raise its sales tax for a stadium - a move that Twins execs had previously decried as a deal-killer, since Hennepin residents have shown little interest in funding a baseball stadium with their tax dollars.
Nonetheless, Twins stadium backers tried to put a happy face on yesterday's events. Hennepin County Commissioner Mike Opat, who came up with both the county sales-tax plan and its "three cents on every 20 dollars spent" marketing slogan, said when asked if the tide was turning against the proposal: "I don't know what tide is turning where here, I think it's more of a whirlpool going on in here. I wouldn't call it a tide." (Sounds like somebody's been to the John Henry School of Baseball P.R.) One possible tea-leaf read: The senate is preparing to line up behind the regional sales tax plan, setting up a showdown with the state house, which has already approved the Hennepin County tax hike, with no referendum required.
Meanwhile, as my new favorite Minnesota state senator Warren Limmer declared this morning, "The tax committee Bataan Death March continues today." Further updates as events warrant.
The 7 county metro wide sales tax is a political ruse. The total funding mechanism at .5% would generate over $10 billion over 30 years. Only alittle more than a billion would actually go to stadiums. The rest would go to transit. The senator who proposed the metro-wide sales tax, Kelley-DFL, is running for governor vs. incumbent Pawlenty-GOP. Kelley is trying to force Pawlenty into signing a bill with a metro-wide sales tax increase (after pledging No New Taxes) or risk losing the Twins. The legislators on both sides of the aisle are missing the point. The teams could, and should, be paying alot more than they are being asked to pay. Minor league county officials are no match for the major league owners and it shows! The Twins are on the hook for 25% and the Vikings around 35% of the project costs. And the taxpayers eat all infrastructure and site improvement overruns.
No wonder the teams are in a big hurry to get these deals done. Let's hope the legislators wake up in time to get the taxpayers a better deal. There is still hope! Best Wishes.
The problem is, the teams have zero interest in negotiation. Hennepin County had to twist Pohlad's arm (I suspect literally) to get him up to 25% -- they originally wanted to cap it at around 17%. If they don't get their way, they'll just keep playing their games, and without a city to move to or a contraction agreement, MLB will probably just buy the team and run it into the ground like it did with the Expos.
And I suspect the intentions of some senators isn't merely to "stick it" to Governor Pawlenty -- the Senate has had major problems implementing their recent budgets due to the uncompromising "no taxes" (or reduced taxes) agendas of the governor and the House. As long as Pawlenty would have to approve two separate tax increases anyway (Hennepin and Anoka counties), why not up the tax a bit and raise some extra dough to pay for other needs in the state? Metro-area transportation looks like it's going to run into funding trouble anyway, and there's hardly any room in the regular budget even after a number of cuts to education etc.
Posted by spycake on May 2, 2006 08:06 PM