Council Member Meg Tuthill’s stadium support hinged on Minneapolis property tax relief and jobs

Property tax relief and job creation were important to Minneapolis City Council Member Meg Tuthill in working her way to the decision to support the city’s Vikings stadium proposal.

Tuthill, who represents the city’s 10th Ward, came to City Hall from the business community. She says the lessons she learned while selling party and festival supplies also played a role in her decision.

In an interview with MinnPost, she had a lot to say about all the factors, including a memorable incident about the financial impact of city amenities that can draw outsiders with money to spend.

Council Member Meg Tuthill: Having the store for 30 years on Hennepin, I remember that when the NCAA finals were here, that tiny little 800-square-foot store made enough money — and it supported two families — that we could have closed down for a quarter. That was huge money for a small business.

While they [the NCAA visitors] were here, we also connected them with DJs, folks who do ice sculptures, caterers, florists and so on.  The money was unbelievable.

I’m sitting in a meeting with the Target Center folks and the University of Arizona folks. And a woman from the University of Arizona said, “You know your sound system is OK, but I’d like to have it a little better. Can you ratchet it up?”

And the Target Center folks said, “Sure, it will be 20 grand.”

She didn’t bat an eyelash. She said, “Fine, next agenda item.”

I never, in 30 years, heard clients from corporate ever do that — never, never once. I was stunned at the money. Stunned.

You remember those things from your experiences. The fact of the matter is we would also be able to host large conventions that the Convention Center can’t hold like Promise Keepers.

That was 70,000 people when they came here. That’s an amazing number of people. You know they all eat out, they all stay in hotels and rent cars. The thing you love about religious groups is usually we don’t need to have police on overtime because they’re not tearing up downtown or the neighborhood with drinking or acting like fools.

Another thing that came into play for me was the fact that the sales tax is not ours. [The state hospitality sales tax imposed on Minneapolis currently funds debt service and some operation costs at the Convention Center.] We are just the fiduciary agent that collects the tax.

The Legislature, for the last couple of years, has been threatening to take that money away from us. What concerns me is, stadium or no stadium, if they took that money away, we would still have capital improvements at the Convention Center and the Target Center that we’re responsible for.

Right now that money does not come out of our general fund. And I don’t want that out of the general fund. That would cost our property taxpayers even more for those capital improvements. 

We need to keep this a Class A city with Class A venues. That came into play.

I’m also very interested in all of the other activities that go on in a large sports arena. Our kids play football and soccer and other games that come here. So that’s important to me.

In a perfect world, do I want public funding? Of course not. None of us do.

In Green Bay when they let the community buy shares, as a person who is not a big sports fan, would I have bought a share? Absolutely. Because it’s part of the fabric of our community that balances everything. The arts that we have are sterling. And for the folks who are into sports this gives them something they’re interested in.

And I believe it’s going to bring plenty of work here. The jobs are really important. Construction jobs are never permanent. We’re going to do this piece of construction and then we move on.  This is going to put a lot of folks back to work, and that’s important to me.

MinnPost: So big factors for you were that the stadium is good for jobs, good for the community and very good for business?

MT: Absolutely good for business. Sometimes we forget how good it is for our businesses.

MP: What were the negatives?  What made this decision difficult?

MT: The city charter is a big deal for me. [The City Charter requires a citywide vote on any sports facility costing the city more than $10 million.] But the fact of the matter is, quite frankly, we can vote on anything we want in this city as council members, or private citizens, but the Legislature has the final say.

We don’t have a say in overriding that charter.[The current stadium bill has a clause that overrides the city charter.]  If we did, it would be a different ballgame in my estimation, but we don’t have a say in that.

The Legislature will dictate whether or not the charter is overridden, and they have overridden it in the past. So that’s neither here nor there.

I sure as heck wish that we had a little more money coming to us for some of the naming rights. That would have made me a lot happier.

I still think that Mayor [Chris] Coleman’s 2-cent tax on every drink that gets drunk in a public institution in the state of Minnesota is absolutely, in my world, the best way to pay for a stadium because everyone is chipping in, including folks who come across the border to watch the games.

And including folks like me who don’t attend the games but think it’s important to the fabric of life here. That would have been my first funding choice, Mayor Coleman’s idea.

But my understanding is that the Republican caucuses at the Legislature just wouldn’t hear of it, which is really too bad. Heck, 2 cents isn’t going to make a bit of difference to anybody.

MP: The stadium bill would allow the city to use the sales tax revenue to pay for the Target Center, which will save property taxpayers an estimated $5-million a year.  How important was property tax in your decision?

MT: Huge. I think property tax is a huge issue to the constituents in Minneapolis. Property taxes and jobs — those are two huge issues for the people of Minneapolis.

It doesn’t matter what income level they’re at. Houses that aren’t selling for half-a-million dollars — those owners feel the same crunch the rest of us have felt. Property tax is a big issue for people. Certainly, when I was door-knocking, property tax was the No. 1 issue.

I want property tax relief.  I want jobs. And I want out venues to continue to be first-class facilities.

MP: You have been making your decision on the stadium at the same time as Council Members Sandy Colvin Roy and Kevin Reich. They reached the same conclusion you did.  Have you three talked about this? Did they share their concerns with you?

MT: The stadium has been an interesting issue for all of us up here. My conversations with Sandy and Kevin have really been about the fact that we will support each other’s decision whatever that will be.

I have not talked to them since they made their decisions, so I don’t know what all went into their decision-making.

I know they were feeling a lot of pressure, and I know this was a huge struggle for them, like it was for a number of us.

My position as a colleague was to reaffirm that they have the right to the position they choose to take, and I will defend and support that right forever.

MP: Was there a tipping point for you in this process? A moment when you saw clearly what your position needed to be on the stadium?

MT: I don’t think there was a final tipping point. I think there was a combination of things.

Reading and listening to the emails and voicemails I received from my constituents and people from across Minneapolis was important. I care about what people think.

My constituents split about 50-50 on the issue. It would have made it a lot easier if they had been heavier on one side or the other, but they weren’t, so it was kind of left up to me.

We live in a government that is not a total democracy. We are a representative government, and my job right now is to make those tough decisions.

I care if the decision is right or wrong. I have to look past my term here because I’m not going to be here forever. I don’t plan to be here forever, and nobody wants me here forever.

I have to look at the long range, 30 years down the road, when I will probably be dead and gone.  And I’m hoping we have made — and I feel that we have made — the right decision.

Two Cities blog, which covers Minneapolis and St. Paul City Halls, is made possible in part by grants from The Saint Paul Foundation and the Carolyn Foundation.