Twelve bucks will get you into the Minnesota State Fair again this year.

The Minnesota State Agricultural Society held its annual meeting in Bloomington over the weekend and the State Fair Board approved maintaining the same entrance and parking fees as last year. That means $12 tickets for teenagers and adults, $10 for seniors and children ages five to 12. Kids under five will again be free. Parking will also remain $12. Pre-fair purchaes will still be $9.

The stable ticket and parking rates come after the board raised prices last year. Adults went up by $1 and children tickets went up $2.

The society, a public corporation under state law that oversees the $40 million-a-year fair operation, elected Jim Foss as its new president to replace retiring president Denny Baker. Foss, from Kenyon, Minn. in Goodhue County, has been on the fair's board of managers since 2002. Foss, 73, has been associated with the fair for more than six decades, after showing cattle for the first time at age 11.

The society, which is comprised of members from county fairs across Minnesota as well as agricltural-related organiazations, also elected Gordon Toenges of Alden, Minn. to the 10 member fair board.

The board at its meeting also reappointed Jerry Hammer as executive vice president and general manager of the fair. The board, by state law, sets Hammer's salary. The board did not publicly disclose the salary amount approved at the meeting.

The 1.76 million who attended the fair last year was near the all-time record. The fair generated $36 million in food and beverage receipts last year.