By Charlie Mahler
Northfield’s Minnesota House Representative Kristi Pursell and Northfield City Administrator Ben Martig testified before the house tax committee last week in favor of a Local Option Sales Tax for Northfield.
If approved at the capitol and then by Northfield voters, the local sales tax would diversify Northfield’s tax revenue stream and make the city less dependent on property tax revenue.
Purcell described her role in the effort during her weekly in-session appearance on KYMN’s In the Morning show.
“The process, as I’m learning, is that we go up, tax committee has to give the thumbs up, it has to pass out of both chambers and from there, then our community can then ask the taxpayers to vote on it,” Pursell explained. “So, it’s a multi-step process, but I guess it had its hearing in the Senate – I never know what’s going on over there – and then we had our hearing in the house yesterday and kept it snappy.”
Pursell said she employed a persuasion strategy that proved successful for another community in her 58A house district.
“Northfield has never asked for this before,” she noted, “so that was sort of my framing. Just like when I presented the water tower bonding bill for Lonsdale – Lonsdale’s never asked for a bonding project.”
Under state law, LSTs must have regional significance. In their application to the state, the city has listed long‑discussed upgrades to the Northfield Community Resource Center, major repairs or replacement of the Northfield Public Library building— the hillside foundation of which is increasingly exposed by erosion—and improvements to Riverside Park.
“No one had any questions,” Pursell recounted. “The DFL tax chair had a bit of advice for us because to stay within the legal bounds it is one park. And our Riverside Park is in multiple locations, but I guess there was legal action for a different project in a different town, so wanting to be clear it can’t be for every park. The designation is a park.”
Asked by KYMN’s Rich Larson if the measure passed out of committee, Pursell attempted to explain the vagaries of tax billing at the capitol.
“It’s post-deadline, so it was for informational only – I’m using quotation fingers – but there are no deadlines in the tax committee. Nothing passed. It’s all going to get down to negotiations in the end.”
If the measure is successful in its legislative meander, final approval of the tax would be put to Northfield voters in the November election.
Charlie Mahler is a Senior Reporter for KYMN News. Contact him at charlie@kymnradio.net.
