Under Vikings stadium plan, Saint Paul becomes most expensive city to shop
Posted at 2:43 PM on May 10, 2011
by Bob Collins
(7 Comments)
Filed under: Politics, Sports
The county has agreed to come up with $350 million, paid for with a half-cent sales tax increase. That puts Saint Paul, in particular, as the most expensive city to buy things in in Minnesota because it already has a city sales tax in addition to the state sales tax and the transportation tax.
| City or County | Sales Tax |
| Saint Paul | 8.125% |
| Minneapolis | 7.775% |
| Ramsey County | 7.625% |
| Hennepin | 7.275% |
| Dakota | 7.125% |
| Washington | 7.125% |
| Anoka | 7.125% |
| Carver | 6.875% |
| Scott | 6.875% |
A person buying a new car in Saint Paul (there aren't many car dealers left in Saint Paul) would pay a sales tax of about $2,031 on a $25,000 car. Someone in Scott County, by comparison, would pay about $1,718.
Comments (7)
...i sure hope God loves football
You don't pay the general sales tax when you buy a car. They are taxed under a separate motor vehicle sales tax. Weirdly, if you lease a car, it is subject to the general sales tax and not the motor vehicle sales tax.
http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/hrd/pubs/ss/ssmnsltx.pdf
A better example might be if you bought a $1000 HDTV to watch the Arden Hills Vikings on, it would cost you $8.50 more in sales taxes if you bought it at the Sears on Rice Street compared to the Sears on Flying Cloud Drive, which is the closest to Scott County, I think.
So do those of us who live in Ramsey County get anything in return for subsidizing this new stadium? I hope we get at least some kind of cut of stadium revenue. Maybe a few discounted tickets? Nothing too crazy, of course, because the most important thing here is that we all keep the Vikings' profit margins as high as possible.
Seriously, please don't take this as an attack against football itself, but why do they get this kind of special treatment? Plenty of large companies get tax breaks and other advantages from the government in exchange for the jobs and money they bring to an area, but what sports teams get seems out of proportion to the benefits they provide.
Why can't the teams pay their own way, perhaps with a state subsidy paid for by ticket surcharges? Then those who go to the games and enjoy the stadium can be the ones who pay for the benefit.
There was a story here on mpr.org a month or so ago about how happy Hennepin County is with its regular check of sales tax receipts Target Field brought in.
Ramsey County taxpayers will not only pay $350 million to construct the stadium. "County would also contribute $1.5 million annually to operating costs for public events and $1 million annually for a capital reserve fun (for major improvements). This will be funded by the sales tax increase."
Saint Paul sales tax will be 8.125%
Your tax dollars at work folks: to pay for ball games. The bill was introduced by Legislators from Moorehead and Fairmont. Their constituents won't be paying the taxes.
Count on your property taxes going up too, and funds being diverted from things you VOTED for like MNCare and the Clean Water Land & Legacy Amendment.
Who's speaking out about this outrage? Hands off our tax dollars! Pay for your own private businesses!
This should just about take care of Macy's in downtown St. Paul. Then we will have a Walgreen's, a bunch of tobacco shops/convenience stores, taverns and coffee shops.
Charming.
How about help funding some of the Lowertown Saints stadium in the deal?
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