The Pioneer Press reports that the Mayor's Office and City Council "vetted" the local option sales tax, and Sen. Moua said, they did not oppose the idea.

Frankly, SPicy is conflicted.

The city faces a big budget hole and there was little chance Governor Pawlenty would ever restore LGA funding.  Something needs to be done to fix the budget problem and Mayor Coleman is finally taking a leadership position that puts him in front of a major issue.

On the other hand, this administration has stressed their commitment to inclusiveness and consensus in decision making.  This was one key way they would be different from the Kelly Administration.  "We will listen, we will be open, and we will bring people together."

Using old-school legislative tricks that one would expect from Randy Kelly leaves me confused.  This effort was a colossal failure. Pushing a new tax on to bars and restaurants after the smoking ban has already hurt their margins is bad politics.  It turns businesses who should be allies into adversaries.  Trying to slide this into a tax bill at 3AM hurts the administration's credibility in dealing with other groups on other issues.

Now that the Council has vetted out the concept, SPicy believes that the Local Option Sales Tax should now become a dominant issue in the Council races for 2007.

SPicy has been told that Kathy Lantry went door to door to talk with Council members and asked for support the concept.  There has been speculation that raising taxes on bars and restaurants would be framed by using the fear of crime.  If the council did not approve it - the city might be forced to reduce the number of police on the street as we head into what some believe will be a violent summer.

To move this forward, Council President Lantry would have had to put together 4 votes. In order for tax to go into effect on January 1, 2008, the council could have acted on the issue before, or after the fall election.

So where did Council President Kathy Lantry find four votes?

SPicy speculates:

Debbie Montgomery - NO
Dave Thune - YES
Pat Harris - NO
Jay Benanav - YES
Lee Helgen - HMMM
Dan Bostrom - NO
Kathy Lantry - YES

SPicy believes this issue puts Lee Helgen in a pretty tough position.   He faces a strong opponent after getting less than 40% of the vote in the last election.  He invested a lot of time and energy to get the Chamber of Commerce PAC endorsement- only to watch them support David Haas, his opponent.  Bars and restaurants like Tin Cups on Rice Street did not support the smoking ban and questioned Helgen's strong support of something that has hurt their business.

The question for Lee is very simple. If you win, will you pursue  additional taxation on the hospitality industry? We're here at tipline@saintpaulicy.com

How about all of the challengers out there? Would you like to share your opinion? One thing for sure, we'll hear about this in upcoming months.