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"Essentially for every dollar you send to us for taxes, 29 cents goes to pay debt. And I've also held the line on mid-year spending as well as some of these big projects: Target, Block E etc. The second thing the city does is it robs Peter to pay Paul. So we're always taking money from one funding source to pay whatever the immediate need is, without thinking at some point you have to pay it back," McDonald says.

McDonald says under the new tax law passed by the Legislature this year, the city will have substantially less for development subsidies than originally calculated. She maintains the city generally spends far more than it should and points to the Milwaukee Depot restoration downtown as an example of a good city investment. She says the city's $11 million contribution was worth it for the restored building that's accessible to the public. As for public money to build a Vikings or Twins stadium, she says she would limit any subsidy to the $10 million limit set by Minneapolis voters.

City overspending is also a theme in Internet consultant R.T. Rybak's campaign. Also citing Target and Block E, Rybak - another DFLer - says the city has been on a huge spending spree for the past eight years, and now problems are mounting. "Our ability to solve them becomes more and more difficult because there has been serious financial mismanagement of this city. We've lost the AAA bond rating that the city has had for 39 years. That's a historic problem and I think signals mismanagement. And the Legislature also took a whack at us in the last session. So the big problem for the next mayor is how do you address all of these growing issues with far fewer resources?" according to Rybak.

One of three bond rating services used by Minneapolis recently downgraded the city's top rating one notch, because of a deficit in an internal fund.

Rybak, a former reporter with the Star Tribune, is the only one of the four candidates to call for changes in the city's campaign finance rules and has not taken campaign funds from firms doing business with the city as a way, he says, to limit corporate influence.

Rybak says he would devote more of the city's money to neighborhood revitalization than for bigger corporate projects. He says there are also higher priorities for public money than stadiums for either the Vikings or the Twins.

Independent candidate Mark Stenglein also commits to no public funding for sports stadiums. The Hennepin County commissioner wants to significantly refocus the city's spending by abolishing social service programs such as the health department and jobs training. He says those are county responsibilities.

Stenglein told a meeting of property rights advocates the city should focus instead on things like maintaining sewers and water mains and cleaning the streets. "The role of city gov is protection and infrastructure," he said. "Everything else flows from that. Even housing flows from that. If we take these inner city neighborhoods no one wants to live in, clean them up, open them up, and all of a sudden there's some housing in there, it's affordable."

Stenglein says he would not raise taxes and would not add to the city's debt. He says the more the city cuts taxes and red tape, the better businesses will operate.

Incumbent mayor Sharon Sayles Belton says the past eight years have been a time of unprecedented growth in Minneapolis and her administration has capitalized on it appropriately. Sayles Belton told the audience at an MPR forum that the investments to bring projects like Target downtown bring long lasting rewards in terms of tax revenue and cultural vitality.

"I believe it's an important project for downtown Minneapolis. I think it's going to strengthen retail in Minneapolis. It's going to keep Nicollet Avenue alive. I think it creates an opportunity for shopping. And, yes, it did cost the city of Minneapolis and taxpayers to get that expanded retail in Minneapolis and the long run it's going to pay off," Sayles Belton said.

Sayles Belton says downtown once had many more underutilized buildings and very little housing. She says investments downtown have turned that trend around with a record number of new offices, condominiums along the waterfront where there were crumbling warehouses, a new museum, and more parks and green space. Those new developments, she says will generate $500 million in property taxes for the city over the next 10 years.