A Senate panel's surprise vote Wednesday to authorize racinos as a way to fund a new Minnesota Vikings stadium left project backers scrambling to erase the proposal before it could scuttle the stadium effort.
The racino addition approved by the Senate Finance Committee was another indicator that many legislators remain doubtful that the state's $398 million share of the $1 billion stadium can be funded solely by allowing electronic bingo and pulltabs in Minnesota bars and restaurants.
Legislators should be doubtful about the pulltabs and electronic bingo, because they won't come close to paying for this thing, especially when the cost overruns start to pile up. Adding a racino does two useful things:
- It again shows how rotten this whole enterprise is; and
- It demonstrates conclusively how the modern-day DFL is a nothing but a shell that is wholly owned by its various benefactors. Doubt that? Consider this:
On Wednesday, DFLers said to expect no help from them if the racino provision remained. "You'll have almost no votes from the [DFL] caucus," said Sen. Richard Cohen, DFL-St. Paul.You don't tug on Superman's cape and you don't mess around with the metro tribes. Meanwhile, various Vikings players were palling around the Capitol yesterday, which got the attention of the television cameras, but Adrian Peterson and Chad Greenway weren't the most important visitors. The NFL's version of Luca Brasi was there, too:
"I feel like we have been watching a very hard fought, great game, with the Vikings marching down to the goal line," said Eric Grubman, a National Football League executive vice president, after watching the stadium debate at the State Capitol. "And I feel like they're very close. And I think when it's very close, it gets really tough."Grubman is watching, people. Better get your minds right.
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