Posted at: 09/14/2012 10:45 PM
Updated at: 09/15/2012 8:26 AM
By: Mark Saxenmeyer
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Email to a FriendTaxes Earmarked for Target Field Also Benefit Youth Sports Programs
Target Field might never have been built without Hennepin County passing a sales tax increase back in 2006.
That tax was also designed to help Minnesota's youth sports programs, and Friday night in St. Anthony Village, the high school showed off what a quarter million dollars of that money can buy.
Right before the St. Anthony Huskies took on Minnehaha Academy, St. Anthony christened its refurbished football (and soccer) field. It has brand new lights and fencing--purchased from a $249,000 grant the school received from Hennepin County Commissioners.
Thanks to the money raised through the Twins' ballpark sales tax, since 2009 Hennepin County has been able to award $2 million to youth sports and $2 million to libraries--every year. This year, 11 sports projects in nine cities received grants.
St. Anthony says its old, dilapidated lights used to cost $45 an hour to run; the new light system costs $5.
Since 2009, a total of nearly $9 million has been awarded to 70 youth sports programs through Hennepin County.
