62 percent of Medical District streets ineligible for sales tax money

I’ve received responses from Zack Filipovich, Arik Forsman and Joel Sipress. All their responses were very similar and totally contradict what you have reported. I tried to find the legislation on line and can’t find it. How can I get this info so I can decide who’s giving me the truth?

The 2017 Street Improvement Plan (SIP), approved by voters, may be found at the link in the second paragraph of the article. In the first paragraph of that document, it states that the program is focusing on residential streets over MSA streets. The third paragraph reiterates that the funding is for residential streets only. Is that the legislation you were talking about?

I doubt any of this will make much difference. When government officials find themselves running into difficulty with legislation, they just write new legislation to get out of it. On the Council’s agenda this very next Monday is a new and improved Street Improvement Program for the Council to approve. Lo and behold, all mention of MSA streets have been removed from the new version.

John: I earlier spoke with the House Research and MN Budget and Revenue about the tortured language in the bill. Their take on it was that a minimum of $10 million had to be spent by the City in the Medical District, either from the 1/2 cent sales tax or the Utility Fund. The idea is is to fund streets and related and extend utilities(i.e. steam plant hookups) at least to Essentia. City has signed contract with Essentia saying same.

Thank you for the response and independent research. Yes, you are correct–a minimum of $10 million is intended to come from a combination of the sales tax and utility funds. No specific amount is named for either fund. I inserted an update to that effect into the article on July 2.

On Sunday, July 7, I will publish an in-depth article reviewing the history of the Street Improvement Program and breaking down how it relates to the Medical District. I think it will be eye-opening.