KENT D.

LAUGEN
ATTORNEY AT LAW

306 West Avenue Red Wing, MN 55066 T 651.388.0476 F 651.204.1135 Email kdlmac@mac.com www.redwinglegal.com

August 9, 2012 The Honorable Mayor Dennis Egan City of Red Wing 315 West 4th Street Red Wing MN 55066 Re: Veto of Local Option Sales Tax

VIA EMAIL

Dear Mayor Egan, I am writing to urge you to veto the local option sales tax resolution. Local taxpayers recently spent thousands of dollars searching for a new Port Director. The new director was hired at an annual salary of $90,000, which must have been in recognition of his broad and deep experience in economic development. Mr. Olson had been on the job for a month when the Council passed the sales tax resolution. Yet, to the best of my knowledge, Mr. Olson was not consulted by the City for his expert opinion regarding the speculative economic benets of the various projects, nor was he consulted on the use of a sales tax as a nancing method as compared to other economic development tools. I nd it inexplicable that the City did not ask our Port Director to be signicantly involved in an issue of this magnitude. This alone should be grounds for vetoing the resolution. Overall, the process was so rushed, (not the fault of the Advisory Committee), that project proponents were not even afforded the opportunity to come before the Sales Tax Advisory Committee to provide a summary of their proposals, eld questions from the Advisory Committee, and to explain any misunderstandings. Proponents spent a signicant amount of time preparing their proposals. This is not the way to engage the public. Further, although an August 6, 2012 report from City Administration suggests that the Sales Tax Advisory Committee advocated for the use of a local option sales tax to advance these projects, I nd no support for that assertion in the Advisory

Committees July 30, 2012 recommendations, nor was the Advisory Committee ever charged with that duty. Based on the foregoing, I respectfully request you veto the local option sales tax resolution.

Sincerely,

Kent D. Laugen
c: Republican Eagle, Downtown Main Street, Chamber of Commerce, Mike Grove

Page 2