In a suburban first, four metro cities to adopt local sales tax

For five years, Excelsior city officials petitioned the state in vain for permission to levy a local sales tax so they could capture some of the dollars spent by out-of-towners at their lakeshore and picturesque downtown. They almost gave up.

But this spring the Legislature gave the west-metro city of 2,400 the authority to enact a half-cent sales tax on general purchases starting Oct. 1, making Excelsior — along with Rogers, West St. Paul and Elk River — the first metro-area suburbs to implement a local tax on top of the statewide general sales tax of 6.875%.

http://www.startribune.com/four-metro-cities-to-adopt-local-sales-tax/513119912/