Tuesday, April 03, 2012

Vikings to Plot of Land East of Metrodome V -- Send the Bill to Hennco

The Vikings stadium plan did get past a hurdle yesterday, but it sounds like there might be, ahem, a few problems with funding the state's "portion" of the stadium with charitable gambling. The Star Tribune reports:


Hours after Gov. Mark Dayton and the chief Senate author of the legislation criticized a key ingredient of the new proposal, a House panel adopted the plan and sent it on its wobbly way.

The plan to fund the nearly $1 billion stadium could get more hearings in both the House and Senate this week before the Legislature begins a 10-day spring break. No Senate panel has yet approved the plan and any stadium deal likely faces choppy political seas as stadium supporters race against GOP hopes to adjourn the Legislature by month's end.

The proposal presented Sunday by Republicans in the House would create funding backstops for the state's share of stadium costs. It quickly drew criticism from several corners, and Dayton said a provision to also allow so-called tip board betting on professional sports games would violate federal laws against sports betting.

"It doesn't strike me at first glance as a viable option," the governor said.

You may not have heard the term "tip board" before, but there's a decent chance you've played one in an office pool. It's the game where you can buy a square and it corresponds to two numbers that would match the last digit of a game score. It's a classic game and it's illegal, even though the law is rarely enforced. The problem is that, as Dayton points out, it is against the law.

So what do you do if you're not sure you can get the money to pay for the Vikings stadium? Give the bill to someone else, of course. Congratulations to Hennepin County!


Hennepin County officials also huddled with lawyers on Monday over a separate provision that would tap excess county sales tax money for Target Field as another funding backup.

"That's a travesty," said Hennepin County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin. "It is breaking faith with the people of Hennepin County. They are scrambling because they can't find their own solution to this problem, so they are taking other people's money. It's obscene."


That's hilarious, Commissioner McLaughlin. Taking other people's money is job one of any governmental entity. That's how you and your pals built Target Field, remember?

While I applaud McLaughlin's newfound commitment to principle, his views are only good for soundbites. What really matters is what Mike Opat thinks, and he is skeptical, too:

"This should give all levels of governments some heartburn," Hennepin County Board Chairman Mike Opat said. "I am against this because they are backing up [a] state revenue shortfall with a local tax."
Besides, I'm sure Opat has other ideas on how to spend the money.

1 comment:

hawkeyedjb said...

It's becoming more apparent that the stadium is a done deal. The most nonsensical ideas for funding are being taken seriously, and there is simply nobody arguing against a massive public subsidy for the thing. All sides seem determined to push this through, whether the funding makes sense or not. All have agreed to pluck the taxpayers for the dough, they're just arguing about the best/sleaziest/least obvious way to do so.