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| Spring Valley, MN to Tax Charitable Gambling |
2006-01-26 |
In Spring Valley, Minnesota, the local government has decided to take advantage of a long- standing option to raise city revenues without resorting to tax raises: by collecting 10% of all charitable gambling profits.
Spring Valley City administrator Deb Zimmer told city council members the following in a speech last week:
“The city council has decided to do this to raise revenues without raising taxes. In the past, the city hasn’t collected 10 percent of the money generated through charitable gambling in Spring Valley. Legally, we can, so the council and city legal staff have made changes in the existing city ordinances dealing with lawful gambling.”
For this reason, the city council has proposed an ordinance that would lay the groundwork for the city to be able to collect 10% of charitable gambling revenues. The ordinance, if approved by the council, will read as follows: “Organizations licensed to conduct lawful gambling with the City of Spring Valley shall donate 10 percent of their net profits from the conduct of such lawful gambling to the City of Spring Valley.”
Spring Valley administrators hope to use the money raised to improve the city’s recreational facilities; to pay for, for example, new playground equipment, swimming pool repairs, and improvements to the hockey rink. |
| (By Keren) |
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