rt rybak

By Christopher David - NoVikingsTax.com - Minneapolis Mayor R. T. Rybak wants to have it both ways. On the one hand, this Tuesday (Feb 1, 2011), he appeared with billionaire publishing magnate Glen Taylor, hawking a plan to spend $155 million, much of it public money, on a "facelift" for Target Center, which the City owns and Taylor's Timberwolves and Lynx basketball teams play in. On the other hand, Rybak wants to be seen as a practical mayor who shares the priorities of city residents and neighborhood activists.

Of a potential Timberwolves Tax to pay for his grand plan for Target Center, Rybak tells Minnpost "I don't want to deal with this issue, frankly, but we simply have to do it." Rybak claims his plan is a "a sensible, sustainable Minnesota solution," and that if we didn't pay a Timberwolves Tax now, we'd have to pay more later.

Instead of attacking the national problem of freeloading professional sports teams--or the spineless public officials that aid and abet them--Rybak attacks the rest of the state, saying that he is sick of Minneapolis being "THE local partner...We're looking for equity."

While it's true that Minneapolis has paid more money in stadium taxes than any other part of the state, having funded the Metropolitan Stadium, Metrodome, Target Center, and Target Field (the last one through citizens' paying a Hennepin County Twins Tax), perhaps that fact is not the fault of the rest of the state. Instead, it could be that Minneapolis is the only city that won't say "no" to billionaire panhandlers.
See also: Prof. david Schultz: Dumb and Dumber: The Folly of Taxpayer Handouts for Professional Sports [Billionaire owner threatens Twin Cities with Vikings departure as community-owned Packers win Super Bowl - maybe community ownership less of a ripoff? --One TCIMC'er]

Despite widespread community support and a history of fighting for better police accountability, Dave Bicking failed to be reappointed to the CRA at the April 2^nd City Council meeting.

It's that time again: Minneapolis has citywide elections (official site) every four years in the election "off-year." This year's election on November 3rd will have two new twists: the most dramatic change is the shift to Ranked Choice Voting or Instant Runoff Voting for city offices (promoted by FairVote MN); also, the Board of Estimates and Taxation may get dissolved by referendum, consolidating more power with the Mayor and City Council. [More: "The auditor would report to the audited"]

The official outreach website for the City's IRV is at VoteMinneapolis.org and they are tabling local events until Election Day. Find your precinct and sample ballot here. Multi-lingual election info is available en Español (Spanish), Hmoob (Hmong) and Soomaaliga (Somali) - call 311 or 612-673-3000 for language help. Public awareness of how it works, especially among disadvantaged communities, looks really bad right now.

What's on the ballot? Mayor, City Council wards, the 2 at-large members of the Board of Estimate and Taxation, and the Park and Recreation Board (3 At-Large & 6 District Commissioners). The vote is expected to take several weeks to completely count everything (one reason the city cites for not calling it "instant" runoff).

Will Ranked Choice Voting mix up Minneapolis' dull & entrenched political establishment? Probably, for one reason in particular: The word from inside the RT Rybak for "Mayor" campaign is that the highly paid consultants running everything are "lollygagging" around waiting for the 2010 governor's race to start, but they don't really care about the city races.

Below the fold, all the candidates and links for mayor... Going deeper: 2009 Minneapolis election rundown: City Council, our favorite shady local deals & more!

Rosemary Williams, Linda Norenberg and thirty of their supporters crowded into Mayor Rybak's office on a rainy Wednesday morning. The mayor was out, it transpired.  So was his chief of staff.  Could the office call the mayor?  No.  "He doesn't have meetings with people who just stop in his office," said mayoral aide Erica Prosser.

"I'm losing my house, me and my kids are," said Norenberg, a Robbinsdale woman who is struggling to avoid foreclosure.  "We don't have time to wait for his schedule."