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Hennepin County Board approves ballpark sales tax

The Hennepin County Board voted 4-3 to proceed with a sales tax to pay for a ballpark. Opponents say they'll show their displeasure at the polls.

By Mike Kaszuba, Star Tribune

Last update: August 29, 2006 - 11:56 PM

In a decision that was both expected and momentous, Hennepin County formally agreed Tuesday to use a sales tax stretching over as many as three decades to help pay for a new stadium for the Minnesota Twins.

The final 4-3 vote followed more than a year of debate that reached the Legislature and dug deep into the feelings of ordinary citizens who lined up before the county in large numbers to ask that the sales tax be subject to a citizen referendum.

Tuesday's action, which was greeted with applause, does not require a referendum and opens the way for the team and the county to move forcefully toward building the $522 million open-air stadium in downtown Minneapolis in time for a 2010 opening.

"Baseball fans in the state of Minnesota should be very thankful," said Jerry Bell, the Twins' lead stadium negotiator. "I'm delighted with the outcome."

For residents of Minnesota's most populated county, the day included news that they will be facing other tax increases as well. The countywide sales tax for the stadium will cost a family with two children making $50,000 annually an estimated $22 a year. In addition, the county proposed Tuesday a maximum property tax levy increase of 5.5 percent and a regional rail tax levy for 2007 that would together add $72 on a median-valued home in Minneapolis and $28 on a similar home in the suburbs. Under the plan, the county's annual budget next year would for the first time top $2 billion.

Although county administrators blamed the proposed levies on federal and state cuts, County Commissioner Linda Koblick -- a strong opponent of the stadium plan -- said the multiple county tax increases would leave many citizens reeling financially. "This is the wrong decision, at a wrong time," she said of the stadium tax. "We're under a squeeze."

Tuesday's vote for a .15 percent sales tax guaranteed a longtime funding source for the stadium: The county will contribute $392 million, with the team adding $130 million. It also gives momentum to the project on a variety of fronts, including negotiations between the team and the county on a development agreement and separate negotiations by the county to buy property for the stadium.

The newly formed Minnesota Ballpark Authority, which began meeting last month and will own the stadium, is expected to hire a law firm by mid-September so that it can start negotiating a stadium use agreement with the Twins. A clearing of the stadium site for construction could come as early as March.

'Money, greed, ego'

Koblick issued the day's most blistering final attack on the stadium plan, saying the project had made the county dysfunctional and blaming the Star Tribune for inadequately covering the debate because of its corporate interests in wanting the stadium to be built. She also took direct aim at Commissioner Mike Opat, the County Board's lead stadium negotiator , and pointed out that Opat's top aide, Dan Kenney, had been named executive director of the Ballpark Authority "with a $50,000 bump in salary."It's about money and greed and ego," she said.

As they had throughout the final public hearings, opponents stood outside the meeting room holding signs that read, "Traitor To The Taxpayers" and "I Need A New Building Too." One critic held a sign that said "Your Next Office: Unemployment," a nod to the fact that three of the four commissioners who voted for the sales tax -- Opat, Mark Stenglein and Peter McLaughlin -- face reelection primaries in two weeks.

"We get nothing for our investment. This is not an investment for the public," Dave Bicking, a vocal critic, said after the vote.

Opat was joined by Stenglein and McLaughlin in predicting that the stadium would ultimately enhance Minnesota's quality of life and keep its largest city vibrant, and that an estimated $4 million yearly in excess sales tax money would go toward youth sports and expanded library hours in the county and Minneapolis. While Opat thanked those who had testified at three public hearings last week, and added that their testimony had raised "a few concerns for me," he said that he had analyzed the stadium plan in depth and that "a lot of the questions I wrestled with, I wrestled with a long time ago."

McLaughlin agreed. "I don't like the economics of big-time sports [any more than] anyone else in this room," he said. "I think it's a positive step -- close call -- but a positive step."

Mike Kaszuba • 612-673-4388 • mkaszuba@startribune.com