Roseville's Marty Critical of Proposed County Sales Tax For a New Vikings Stadium

Roseville state Sen. John Marty said today he opposes a proposed half-cent Ramsey County sales tax to help fund the construction of a Vikings football stadium proposal in Arden Hills.

“The Vikings legislation would hit Ramsey County taxpayers more than three times as hard as the Hennepin sales tax for the Twins ballpark, yet at the Capitol there has been almost no discussion of the local impact,” Marty, a DFLer, said in a press statement today. 

Marty, long an opponent of publicly-funded sports stadiums for private businesses, contended that Vikings lobbyists and the stadium bill authors are trying to downplay the size of the taxpayer subsidy by talking only about the state tax increases and virtually ignoring the impact of the local tax increase. 

“For every 30 cents Hennepin County taxpayers pay for the Twins ballpark, Ramsey County taxpayers would be paying $1.00 for the Vikings tax–that’s three times the tax increase,” Marty said.

The Vikings stadium sales tax increase would be .5 percent in Ramsey County. In comparison, the Hennepin County sales tax increase is .15 percent for the Twins stadium, Marty said.   

“Every purchase in Ramsey County, whether it be for tools, or toilet paper, or toys, or TVs, or whatever else, for the next 30 years, will have a half cent tax added, just to pay this subsidy to the Vikings,” he said.

Marty noted that some recent polls show that nearly 75 percent of respondents oppose taxpayer funding for the stadium. However, the legislation would prevent voters from having any say on this increase by blocking a voter referendum, he said.