The stadium is being funded by a sales tax in Hennepin County only, not by any state-wide tax. Hennepin County commissioners voted for the tax in their County. Hennepin County Commissioners could have had a vote of Hennepin County residents to approve the tax but they didn't. I don't live in Hennepin County and none of my taxes will go towards building the stadium. If the Hennepin County taxpayers want to pay for a stadium, that's their decision. As none of the money for the stadium comes from state funding, the amount spent on the stadium has no affect on state funding for things such as roads and bridges.
“Hennepin County commissioners voted for the tax in their County. Hennepin County Commissioners could have had a vote of Hennepin County residents to approve the tax but they didn’t.”
You are correct any many of us are wondering just what if anything one or two Hennepin County Commissioners worked out with the Billionaire that caused them to vote for a tax on their citizens for him.
The bottom line is that any society can handle only so much in tax before it has a negative impact to all. It is Governments reponsibility to measure it, assess it, and spend it for the greatest good while being constrained by the fact a society can only allocate so much for taxes. Hennepin County squandered a fortune in tax on a stadium few wanted. The fact every poll showed overwhelming REJECTION of spending tax money for the stadium was the reason these Commissioners REFUSED to allow a referendum.
To repeat: what did they (Commissioners) get out of it?
Pawlenty's support of the stadium was what pissed me off, when they were working on finding a way to pay for it.
I was't referring to the stadium funds as being diverted from transportation...
I was just pissed that we have another subsidized stadium (the current metrodome is a good example) paid for by many people who will never set foot in it.
I don't live in Hennepin county either, yet even if you never purchase a toy in the county, if you live there, you still have the tax on top of your water bill, etc. They should have let the taxpayers vote on it, but they knew which way the vote would have gone, so they decided not too.
What a government and without pawlenty's support of it and the tax (yes it is not state wide tax), the stadium would never have been approved to be built.