[Mpls] Sales Tax Increase for Police

[Allen]

I think the city should look at better spending it's money.  I don't want to
sound like a W clone just spouting off that statement for the heck of it.
But a $1.2 billion dollar budget and we were looking at a budget that meant
cutting nine officers?  The strib did a decent job of raising some questions
on ways it can make better use of those funds.  Let us work on that before
we enact a PERCENTAGE based increase on the sales tax.  I emphasized the
percentage aspect of it because, since the sales tax is formed that way, as
overall sales in the city increase so does the amount of revenue from that
tax.  I don't like seeing officers unable to use vacation time, which is
happening right now because more often than not, because staffing for butts
on the streets is too low.  But simply spending more money is not a silver
bullet.

And I'm glad that Eva mentioned the idea of a tax dedicated for a Twins
stadium.  At a time when the MPLS school district is closing schools and
cuttings staff do we as a city want to make finding funds for entertainment
a priority?  A big enough of a priority that we enact a tax for that?  

Allen Graetz
Lowry Hill


-----Original Message-----
From: mpls-bounces at mnforum.org [mailto:mpls-bounces at mnforum.org] On Behalf
Of Eva Young
Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2004 10:29 PM
To: mpls mn forum
Subject: [Mpls] Sales Tax Increase for Police

I read in the Strib that Ostrow is proposing a sales tax increase to fund 
police and fire.

What do folks here think of this proposal?

If Ostrow wants to raise Minneapolis Sales tax .5 percent for Police/Fire - 
and then add on top of that a bar/restaurant tax increase to pay for the 
Twins stadium, it's going to mean Minneapolis Sales taxes are a percentage 
point higher than elsewhere in the metro.


Eva Young
Near North
Minneapolis
lloydletta at yahoo.com
http://lloydletta.blogspot.com 


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