Minnesota cigarette smokers -- "more than 727,000
strong" -- would help finance a new Twins ballpark by paying
an additional dime tax on each pack under a proposal
presented Wednesday, according to Whereatt & Baden of the
Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE. MN Gov. Arne Carlson, the Twins
and the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, will ask
the Legislature to direct "as much" as $.09 of the tax
increase toward the stadium, with $.01 going to tobacco
educational programs. The tax was chosen as "the most
politically palatable" of various tax options for a project
that so far has "minimal legislative support." MSFC Chair
Henry Savelkoul said the stadium portion of the tax would
raise nearly $30M a year, "enough to pay for the public's
portion of the stadium's cost in six or seven years," after
which the tax could be used for other public programs
(Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 1/16). The tax has "brought a
potentially powerful ally" to stadium supporters -- the
state's health care community, but they will stand in
"direct opposition" to one of the "most politically powerful
groups to lobby the Legislature: the tobacco industry."
Twins attorney Tom Borman, said he is "a little nervous"
about taking on the tobacco lobby: "We've taken on a huge,
very formidable opponent. I do wish we'd found another way"
(Patricia Lopez Baden, Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 1/16).
