St. Paul's 1% sales tax increase goes into effect, funding road and park improvements
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The cost of buying something in St. Paul has gone up. A new sales tax has gone into effect, raising the city's sales tax to the highest level in the state.
This time last year, lawmakers were debating whether Minnesota's capital city needed more money as it emerged from a long winter.
"Our streets were pretty busted up from a tough winter," Mayor Melvin Carter said. "And it was really clear what happens when you take streets that have a 60-year expected lifespan and replace them on a 124-year replacement cycle."
Approved by voters in November, a 1% tax increase is now in effect. The city is calling the new penny for every dollar "common cents".
"We know that the track our streets have been on just has not been sustainable. That's common sense," Carter said. "A sales tax very uniquely gives us, gives those visitors, those commuters, an opportunity to invest, to help maintain those critical pieces of infrastructure."
RELATED: St. Paul City Council passes $45.1 million in street, park improvements through new sales tax
The 1% increase is expected to bring in more than $1 billion over the next 20 years. Three-fourths of that will go toward more than 44 miles of road across the city, including Grand and Summit Avenues.
"The last time Summit Avenue was fully reconstructed, Taft was the president and car ownership in America was just under 3%," Carter said.
The funds will also go toward parks and recreation facilities.
Carter says the goal is to build more than new infrastructure.
"If we just kind of take this as an opportunity to say, we're going to take up the old concrete and put down new concrete in all the same places where it was 100 years ago, we prepare our city for a vibrant and thriving 1925. That's obviously not the goal," Carter said. "We have a funding stream that will provide almost $1 billion over the next 20 years to reset our city for the next generation."
Construction on Grand Avenue is expected to start in the coming days with tree removal. Grand Avenue itself will close sometime this summer.