The daily digest of Twin Cities culture | Secrets of the City

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!

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!

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).

er, necessities. can't ... type ...

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.

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?)

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.

what's that?

That what someone I know calls the new library.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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?

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.