Hennepin County (Minn.) leaders seek to repurpose ballpark tax money to fund healthcare improvements.
The proposal stems from a 0.15% sales tax used to build Target Field, the stadium in Minneapolis where the Minnesota Twins play, county leaders told Becker's during a phone interview. The sales tax has been collected since 2007 and raises more than $50 million each year. It is slated to expire by 2030.
"As we got closer to paying off the general obligation bonds, we realized that there were opportunities to repurpose those sales tax monies," Hennepin County Administrator David Hough said. "Instead of utilizing and paying for the infrastructure for the ballpark, repurposing those dollars to help with Hennepin County's health infrastructure."
The proposal, which is before the state Legislature, aims to use about $40 million a year from the sales tax to support healthcare infrastructure costs. Hennepin County includes Hennepin Healthcare, as well as a federally qualified health center and mental health and chemical health facilities. Mr. Hough said the county has aging healthcare infrastructure that is in need of significant capital investment over the next decade.
"We need an inpatient tower, and there are other associated needs that we have, which are very costly," he said.
The Twins and Target Field are another part of the equation. Under the proposal, the county would intend to contribute $9 million of the sales tax proceeds per year to a capital expenditure fund to maintain and improve the ballpark, Hennepin County CFO Joe Mathews said. The capital expenditure fund would be managed by the Minnesota Ballpark Authority, which manages the stadium. The Twins, who lease Target Field from the ballpark authority, would extend their lease until at least 2059 and continue to contribute $4.5 million annually to the fund.
"Those would grow based on the growth in the sales tax over the period of the agreement," Mr. Mathews said. "With a cap and a floor to make sure that if there's a huge increase in the tax revenue, not all of that will be attributed to the ballpark."
The county would also make three payments of $3 million each in the first three years of that agreement (2025, 2026 and 2027). There would then be a smaller payment made each year after that of around $1 million, adjusted for inflation.
Overall, Mr. Mathews estimated that over the next 20 years, the proposal would raise more than $800 million for healthcare in Hennepin County.
Hennepin Healthcare includes "a level 1 trauma center and is critical to our community and the state and the region," Mr. Hough said. "So maintaining their infrastructure is a critical or important part of what the county does. They're a subsidiary corporation of Hennepin County, they employ about 7,500 employees, and the county owns their facilities by statute and by reserve power. So we want to make sure they're maintained and they have what they need to provide access to care to all those that need care."
The Legislature ends its current session in May.