By Tim Nelson
mpr.org news/90.1

St. Paul has been talking over a potential soccer stadium in the city’s Midway neighborhood, but even with a potential deal in the offing and votes by the city and Ramsey County, some key parts of the deal remain unknown.

Among them: What, exactly, was the team expecting when it sought tax breaks for its planned Major League Soccer stadium?

Team owner Bill McGuire brought up a construction sales tax break, a property tax exemption and limits on future taxes when he pitched the idea to state lawmakers in April.

Of those, the property tax exemption seems to be the biggest question. It’s thought to be worth millions of dollars a year for an 18,500 seat facility the team estimates will cost $120 million to build. But no one is willing yet to put a dollar figure on the tax bill.

The Ramsey County officials who calculate property taxes say they can’t assess a property tax on a stadium that doesn’t yet exist. Assessors typically count on real estate sales and comparable properties to evaluate taxable value, but stadiums rarely change hands, and there isn’t another venue like it in the Twin Cities.

“I note that my office has not yet seen any proposed plans or construction costs and that we could only assess a completed facility,” said Ramsey County assessor Stephen Baker.