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its tax base in such districts, compared to 8 percent in St. Paul and 6.2 percent statewide. Advocates of the subsidies -- such as Jim Prosser, former city manager of Richfield and now a consultant -- say incentives are needed to stimulate redevelopment before urban decay makes the job too difficult. Subsidies provide "a leveling of the playing field so that developers are able to buy the land [in older cities and suburbs] at close to what vacant land would be" in a less-developed area, Prosser said. The Legislature's attempts to restrict cities' use of subsidies are softened by regular exceptions. In early April, a parade of legislators and officials from Waseca, Medford, St. Louis Park, Wayzata and elsewhere sought exceptions. Before one hearing, a legislator familiar with such hard-luck pitches asked a colleague, "Did you bring the Golden Strings?" Joel Michael, a Minnesota House researcher, said the law is more restrictive on • subsidies than it was in the early 1980s. But Minnesota is "still wide open compared to other states," he said. The churning of laws and regulations has produced a labyrinth of rules whose application depends on when a district was created. That creates a market for consultants who know the ins and outs of the laws. "There's a whole industry built into this," said Sen. John Marty, DFL-Roseville, who has repeatedly failed to win approval for a bill preventing the formation of new subsidy districts. "It seems no matter what type of restrictions we put on, there's always some creative consultant out there that finds a way around them," Rest said. Staff librarian Linda Scheimann contributed to this report. --Mike Kaszuba is at mkaszuba@startribune.corn ©Copyright 2001 Star Tribune.AU rights reserved. •