Publicly funded stadium moves forward despite opposition of most citizens

St. Paul, MN – August 30, 2007 – "Today is a day for rich corporations to celebrate the millions they'll make off the ballpark we're buying them," said Green Party of Minnesota Spokesperson Dave Bicking about the groundbreaking celebration for the new Twins stadium.

The Green Party is one of several citizen groups that have consistently opposed any public funding of the new Twins ballpark.

Polls have shown that most Minnesotans agree. A January, 2004, statewide poll conducted by the Star Tribune found that 62 percent of respondents opposed spending public dollars on a Twins stadium and 72 percent opposed a Twin Cities area sales tax to fund a ballpark. The paper also noted that this overwhelming opposition has been consistent in polls dating back to 1997.

But last year the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners passed a 30-year, 0.15% sales tax that will fund the majority of the cost of the stadium. Citizens of Hennepin County were denied a vote on this when the MN State Legislature granted a first-time-ever exemption from the state law that requires a referendum for new local sales taxes.

"The people made it clear that they didn't want to pay for a stadium with their tax dollars," Bicking said. "That just convinced the leaders of both major parties that they needed to keep the decision out of the hands of the people. Now we're putting $392 million into this deal and getting essentially nothing out of it. Though the public is ‘investing' three quarters of the cost, we receive none of the revenues."

"Though the deals have already been made and construction is beginning, the Green Party joins with others to protest today's event because the lessons of the stadium tax fight are more relevant now than ever. The public subsidy of the stadium, while the 35W bridge is lying in the middle of the river, highlights the need for a re-examination of our priorities. As citizens, we have to step forward and demand that funding decisions are guided by our priorities and values and not the interests of corporate profiteers."

"Today's groundbreaking is a celebration of greed and the subversion of the democratic process," Bicking said. "We're seeing our public infrastructure crumble before our eyes, but we're buying ballparks for billionaires. We have to do better."