Star Tribune
Hennepin tries again for Target Field tax for HCMC, extend Twins lease
Finally, converting the sales tax would continue about $4 million in annual funding that is split between extended hours for Hennepin County libraries and subsidies for youth activities.
When they first proposed converting the ballpark tax last spring, the legislation got bipartisan support with lawmakers excited by the prospect of extending the Twins lease and supporting local health care needs.
But the plan also faced skepticism and couldn’t muster the support it needed, even with Democrats completely in control of state government, to become law. North Memorial was not included in the initial proposal and some DFLers had reservations about providing $10 million a year to a stadium for a sports team owned by the wealthy Pohlad family.
This year, the proposal could face different hurdles. Republicans and Democrats will share control of the House and the powerful tax committee that would have to sign off on converting the tax.
Rep. Kristin Robbins, R-Maple Grove, who hopes to continue her role on the House tax committee, noted that the DFL-led Legislature increased Hennepin County sales taxes by 1% in 2023. She agrees the county’s two safety-net hospitals need more dedicated public funding, but wants county leaders to explore other options.
A man was struck and killed along a rural Dakota County as he attempted to move the carcass of a deer he just hit from the roadway.
The man, 69, from Hastings, has stuck the deer about 6:35 a.m. Wednesday, as he was driving west on County Road 46 near General Sieben Drive in Marshan Township, the Dakota County Sheriff’s Office said.
Another driver who stopped at the scene to help saw an eastbound driver strike the man in the traffic lanes, a news release from Sheriff Joe Leko said.
Deputies arrived quickly and attempted life saving measures, but were unsuccessful, Leko said.
Authorities have not released the man’s name.
The driver who hit the victim was uninjured and has been cooperative with the ongoing investigation, Leko said.
A woman is dead following a two-vehicle collision early Wednesday in Otter Tail County in northwestern Minnesota, the State Patrol said.
The woman, 55, of Sebeka, Minn., was headed north on Haberhan Road when she collided with a pickup truck headed east on Hwy. 10 about 2:40 a.m., the patrol said.
Her name has not been released.
Two adults and a teenager from Miles City, Mont., in the pickup truck were not injured, said patrol spokesman Lt. Michael Lee.
Road conditions were dry at the time of the crash, which happened in Pine Lake Township between Perham and New York Mills.
No other information has been released.
But earlier this year, a farmer from Beltrami County, backed by the conservative Pacific Legal Foundation, sued to block the program on the basis its eligibility requirements discriminated against the white plaintiff. In response, the Legislature changed the program’s eligibility, dropping priority for minorities and focusing, instead, on specialty crop farmers and lower-income growers.
Sen. Aric Putnam, DFL-St. Cloud, said the new language focuses on “market conditions,” but would “still, by and large, reach the same population we were trying to reach before.”
For Ellis, the journey to pigs, chickens, and homemade ketchup from his garden really began in 2011. That’s when he got sober and started buying food for his children.
“I was always wondering why I got some anxiety in the grocery store,” Ellis said. “I’d get into the store, and wonder, ‘who buys all this [stuff]?”
But when he lived off Franklin Avenue, a neighbor kept a potted garden. She gave him a fresh tomato.
“I was like, ‘Oh my God. What is this? I definitely wanted to come up with a way [to grow this].’”
