Unhappy to Pay and Pay and Pay for a “Better Hennepin County”
By Mitch Berg
The southeast-Henco town of Saint Bonifacius has had enough, and isn’t going to take anymore. Some of its leaders, business people want to secede from tax-sotted Hennepin County, and go over to low-tax Carver County:
They say Carver County has lower taxes, more responsive law enforcement and no multimillion-dollar stadiums. The last straw: the new transit sales tax, which Hennepin adopted and Carver did not.
“Our tax dollars seem to find their way, very quickly, to Minneapolis and its pet projects,” said Mayor Rick Weible. “I think the idea is, look, we’re feeling a little left out here.”
They wish the snow plows came a bit sooner and fear losing local businesses to the siren song of lower taxes just down the road.
It’s a complaint that’s been heard before from citizens of the rural communities of western Hennepin County.
They sometimes resent the higher cost of living they help support in the eastern big cities and suburbs.
The great fallout from the so-called “Minnesota Miracle” is that the parts of Minnesota that work – small exurban towns like Saint Boni, productive rural cities and towns, the burbs – subsidize the parts that don’t, like the Twin City governments.
But for many officials, residents and business owners in St. Bonifacius — known to locals as “St. Boni” — even the discussion of seceding has been exhilarating.”It’s the best damn idea I’ve ever heard,” said Jay Gregg, longtime owner of Gregg Floor Covering. “We’re sick and tired of being trapped by the Minneapolis politicians. All they care about is our tax base. And now our taxes are going to finance their light rail? That’s nuts.”
The article notes that it’d be pretty hard to pull this off
Last year, the Legislature passed a measure that would allow the entire city [of Rockford – which is split between Hennepin and Wright Counties] to become a part of Wright County. However, the measure required Hennepin County’s approval, and so far it has refused, with county officials saying it would set a bad precedent.
The usual, predictable suspects are lining up:
Bob DeBoer, policy director for the Citizens League, said the city should consider the percentage of its residents who work in Hennepin County — 57 percent, not counting those who work within St. Bonifacius itself, according to 2000 Census data. Only 22.5 percent work in Carver County.
“I find this idea of cities opting in or out of a county based on the taxes of the day troubling,” DeBoer said. “To secede from Hennepin County would essentially be saying, ‘Thanks for all the great infrastructure and jobs, but we don’t want to pay for it.’ “
But I think the point is that Saint Boni isn’t getting all that “great infrastructure”. They’re getting higher taxes to subsidize Minneapolis.
May 1st, 2008 at 10:34 am
I’ll be blogging on this at http://www.savagerepublican.com .
This is too rich a topic to let lie.
May 1st, 2008 at 4:00 pm
“I find this idea of cities opting in or out of a county based on the taxes of the day troubling,” DeBoer said. “To secede from Hennepin County would essentially be saying, ‘Thanks for all the great infrastructure and jobs, but we don’t want to pay for it.’ “
Um no, to secede from Hennepin County would essentially be saying “the infrastructure is already paid for by the company’s monthly utility bill and our gas taxes and unless one is working for the county, its taxes have nothing to do with one having a job.”
May 1st, 2008 at 4:05 pm
BTW: my family is from Carver County and I drive through St Boni at least once a month when I go to visit them. Mackenthun’s Meats has the best teriyaki beef jerky and garlic summer sausage ever! It’s also the only place I’ll buy hot dogs (or “old fashioned wieners” as they call them) from if you’re like me and enjoy making a few dogs on the grill in the summer but don’t like that processed Oscar Meyer garbage.