Hennepin County Elections: Commissioners & Sheriff

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twincitizen
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Re: Hennepin County Elections: Commissioners & Sheriff

Postby twincitizen » December 19th, 2014, 8:20 am

The article hits it at the end, and I would assume it is correct: it's probably Jan Callison's spot to lose, assuming she wants it. Peter McLaughlin hasn't been chair before, but he is chair of HCRRA and of CTIB, positions I assume he enjoys enormously. Marion Greene is obviously too new, though I suppose Linda Higgins has enough experience. Randy Johnson was longtime chair before Opat and he is likely retiring in 2016 (based on age and length of service). Jeff Johnson obviously would not have the support of his colleagues.

Whoever it is, they'd better not stand in the way of Midtown corridor like Opat has been doing.

Also, who thinks Opat is gearing up for a run at Governor in 2018? He'd likely be a very strong (establishment) candidate.

MNdible
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Re: Hennepin County Elections: Commissioners & Sheriff

Postby MNdible » December 19th, 2014, 10:43 am

Seems like he stepped aside when he wanted to push hard for Target Field. I'd wager his interest in the MLS stadium has something to do with his decision here.

Has anybody seen any updated projections regarding how much extra money the Hennepin County Ballpark tax is throwing off these days? Based on a 2013 article, it would appear to be significant.

twincitizen
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Re: Hennepin County Elections: Commissioners & Sheriff

Postby twincitizen » December 19th, 2014, 10:46 am

Apparently not enough to open the Uptown Library on Sundays. :geek:

Though I'm sure they could probably swing that if we bothered Marion Greene about it. Many other branches have Sunday/Monday hours funded by the ballpark .15% sales tax.

For serious though, it looks like there's a board meeting on Jan. 8th: http://www.ballparkauthority.com/Meetings.html

Maybe somewhere in their meeting minutes there'll be a rundown of how the tax collections went in 2014. With the absurd growth in restaurants and general strength of retailing throughout Hennepin County and our excellent economy, you've gotta imagine that it's generating a nice margin above their projections. Though at some point, you'd think the team will ask for some publicly-funded upgrades to Target Field. So far, all of the semi-annual improvements have been done 100% on the team's dime. If the balance is looking plentiful, I could see the Pohlad's saying, "y'know, we could really use a new _______."

Regarding the soccer stadium specifically, if the amount of public funding were small enough, I could definitely see them being able to get the Ballpark Authority (and presumably the Pohlads) to go along with it. I have to imagine it would still require legislative approval to allow funding of something other than Target Field improvements, library hours, and youth ballfields.

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Re: Hennepin County Elections: Commissioners & Sheriff

Postby MNdible » December 19th, 2014, 10:53 am

If I recall, the allocations for contributions to the libraries and youth sports, taken from sales tax revenue above that required for bond payments, is capped by statute. Anything beyond that can only be used for reserves or accelerated payments and is not allowed to be used for the general fund.


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