Secrets of the City

In other words I can expect my taxes to go up, because I didn’t see anything in the story about looking for ways to make it work within the current budget. Are we even going to consider closing some libraries now that we have this great (and I do think it will be great) new one in downtown? Maybe there is money in another part of the budget. RT said it himself, “…we need a bigger pie” and dismissed anything but.

And how many hours is “open as many hours as they should be?” That’s the sort of vague statement we hear from people who say schools aren’t “adequately funded.”

This is why people from outside the city look at us and shake their collective head, our reactions and solutions are always the same: blame someone else; raise taxes. Go down the list of any issue, this city isn’t responsible for anything. It’s always someone else and damn, if we just had a bigger pie.

That being said, I am excited about the new library and I really like the Daily Planet. Jimmy! Get me a picture! Sure thing Mr. White!

Let’s just have a 25% sales tax and fund our schools, libraries, cultural institutions, transit agencies and even build stadiums and the MOA expansion with it? I mean, it’s only an extra quarter on every dollar spent! You won’t even notice it’s gone!

I’m with mayhem as long as we get rid of the property tax and flatten the income tax. If done right, a sales tax is quite progressive.

While we’re bitching about the stadiums, I think I should mention the Pohlads donated $1 million to the library.

“While we’re bitching about the stadiums, I think I should mention the Pohlads donated $1 million to the library.”

If the Pohlad’s throw their money away like that then it’s no wonder they need some help paying for a stadium.

woah woah, flattening the income tax is pretty regressive, as is a sales tax. property tax has become a modern scam because there’s so little rhyme or reason to whatever hocus-pocus the assesor does that it makes the whole process suspect.

I was mostly lampooning the sales-tax-as-a-silver bullet concept, honestly. Although I wouldn’t necessarily be against something like a 10-15 percent sales tax if they really did spend it on things like education and transportation, I still think a tiered income-tax system is necessary (though I honestly wish they’d elminate tax loopholes for rich folks). The only way a flat-rate income tax wouldn’t be a terrible thing is if they elminate absolutely all exceptions and deductions except for the poor. If you make sure the rich can’t weasel out of their tax obligations you can probably get by with a low enough rate for all but the poorest to afford (still regressive, but not as bad as it could be).

Kevin, point taken. When the library bond issue was floated, it had to contain money for remodeling the branches, because Minneapolis neighborhoods will not allow their neighborhood library to close when some other neighborhood’s gets to stay open. So, instead of making tough decisions to close some branches, they decided to keep them all open half the time. You want tough political decisions, you’re going to have to look somewhere other than the current crop of politicians we have on the Council and (ahem) Library Board.

Since I am on the Friends of the Library board, I am going to hear about that last statement at a meeting Friday. Before you blame the Library Board itself, even if it and all associated expense were abolished, that would only keep the central library open three more days a year. If you want libraries open more, call your council person.

Oh I’d also add that if by ‘done right’ you meant basically turning it into a luxury tax and leaving ncessities like food and clothing sales-tax free, then yes, it is fairly progressive. I forgot about that wrinkle until after I posted earlier.

er, necessities. can’t … type …

Welcome to my wiorld wrold world.

Raise taxes on the wealthy (who pay the least no matter how you slice it). Keep the estate (”death”) tax. More luxury tax on luxury items. Things like non-work related trucks, SUV’s, large boats, personal aircraft and bad taste.

The lack of funding for, well, pretty much everything is getting to be a joke in this country. I mean, what do I pay taxes for? Crappy roads and defense apparently.

By flattening the income tax, I sort of had in mind eliminating the IRS and all of it’s associated expense, and all the accountants, lawyers, etc. who make a living figuring out how to avoid tax. I also had in mind making the wealthy pay at least as much as the middle class, as a percentage of income.

Yes, that’s what I meant about a sales tax done right. When I lived in Europe, food and clothes (and beer) very cheap. A color TV was $500 for the TV and $1000 in tax. Tax on a small working man’s car was $1000. Tax on a Mercedes was $25,000, etc.

Let’s try to avoid pie-in-the-sky tax schemes that will never happen.

TB – Somebody really needs to stand up to these neighborhoods and smack them down. Don’t get me wrong, I like how Minneapolisianites take active roles in their neighborhood, but they need to be put in their place. Sometimes it seems like they have more power than the City Council. Like right now, we need to close libraries. The Walker Library – why is that still open? It’s a dump! And, it’s 10 minutes from the new one. There’s ZERO sense putting another dime into it. But we will.

(I shake my head and wonder, how long before I really can’t afford to live in the city I love?)

But how can you implement a system like that and eliminate bureaucracy at the same time?

The problem with putting the IRS/accountants out of work is … well, what else are they going to do? “Hello, welcome to McDonalds, can I file your tax returns? Would you like deductions with that?”

And Matt brings up a good point, devising and enforcing some kind of VAT on american goods would require quite a bit of bureaucracy. Not to mention with the way money oils the system, I’m sure some industry/company would pay off the right people to make sure their products aren’t taxed as heavily. As great as it would be, I don’t trust the government enough to do it fairly.

Kevin, problem is a new tax wouldn’t replace an old tax. It would just be piling on. Gutless politicians is redundant. Given the current system in Minneapolis, a council person could never vote to close a library, or they wouldn’t be a council person next time around. The Strib had some good suggestions a while back (good luck trying to find it on their site) about remaking Minneapolis governance. What happened? Nothing.

They build a $100 million library so they can lock the damn thing up?

That makes sense.

I already can’t afford to live in the city I love. That’s why I live in Minneapolis.

To clarify, the Central Library will be open six days a week (not Sunday) but only two evenings a week) the branches are on short hours. Some are only open three days a week, others four, some five.

The didn’t need to build the Crystal Cathedral.

what’s that?

That what someone I know calls the new library.

Ah. Wanted to make sure it wasn’t some local megachurch I didn’t know about. I’m pretty sure there’s one in the south somewhere (haha, obviously, right?) called that.

Crystal cathedral? I’d end up calling it the Crystal Court by accident. We need a better nickname.

Any suggestions?

Southern California. Orange County to be exact. Near where the out of work accountants are now doing breast implants.

I remember that Tribune feature, I like it. As a non-native, the whole city government structure seems totally bizarre.

kwatt, I agree. Unfortunately I missed that feature. It would have really helped because local government here makes very little sense to me.

Kevin, your “smackdown” tirade is so funny. The people in the neighborhoods have more power than the city council members they elected? I sure hope so — the council represents them and their interests . . .

Just imagine for one little wee moment that you have a couple grade-school kids, and they can walk down to the neighborhood library to check out a book, attend a program, get help with their homework or access the internet that you can’t afford to have at home.

I can’t imagine that, it’s just a bunch of non-reality.

(sarcasm)

What I meant was the neighborhood orgs seem to have a lot of influence over policy and procedure type decisions and I think too much deference is given to their opinions.

I’d say I’m 95% against any constitutionally dedicating funds for anything, and that the library lobby has a death grip on MNspeak.

My phone has Internet access, and if I’ve got access to all the information available on the web today, the simple handheld gadgets of 2025 will have access to more information than your local hidebound branch library. If we dedicate funds to the libraries, they’ll just get a consistent stream of more and more money to provide less and less service — and the pigs are already feeding at the trough with that ugly new central library dangling halfway over Henepin Avenue.

but what are you basing that they have “a lot of influence” on? Based on my first hand experience, I don’t think that necessarily is accurate.

TBartel said “Minneapolis neighborhoods will not allow their neighborhood library to close” (note he said neighborhoods not neighborhood organizations). So be it. If there is that much interest in keeping a library open, why should it close?

why does it have be Central v. neighborhood libraries? Seems shortsighted.

champs, technology is fine; some argue that everyone in the city should just be given a computer and free internet access. I don’t know about that, but obviously we need to incorporate that tech — and our libraries will be changing to reflect the times. but local libraries are community gathering spots – and again, if the library “lobby” is so strong, doesn’t that mean something?

champs, why do you hate reading/freedom/america? if I can’t check out a book at 10PM sunday night, the terrorists have already won!

Just a little information, the central library will have about 300 computers, all internet connected, for use by those who might not have them at home or work. There will also be the 3 million books, most of which aren’t digitized, I’m sure. And, you can check out music, movies, and there are librarians who will do real research for you for free to answer questions than might not have made wikipedia yet, or that Norm Coleman’s staff might have already changed.

Thanks to google for finding those three links for me.

Sneak peek inside the new library.

Shit. What does is say about me that I’m going to New York this weekend to watch a production of a play I wrote, but I’m more excited about coming back on Monday to snap some picks of the new library?

Let me add to that: What does is say about me that I’m even more excited about getting access to microfiches of old Star Tribune issues from the 60s and 70s, because I want to photocopy the porn ads out of them?

Sure, I could go to St. Paul and do at it at the History Center, but I live within walking distance of the library.

Some of you might be interested in a story in last week’s Sunday Boston Globe about new libraries being built in London called Idea Stores. It sounds like the kind of project that would never get traction in Minneapolis because of the accusations of commercialized public spaces (let me write the op-ed headline for you: “Idea Stores Serve Up Ikea Snores”), but there’s something to this idea of making the library a center of community activity.