April 15, 2010

MN legislators, Vikings brainstorm stadium funding ideas

As predicted, with just a few weeks to go in its 2010 session, the Minnesota state legislature has started throwing Vikings stadium funding ideas at the wall, and seeing if any of them stick. Yesterday about 20 legislators shot the shit (ed. note: not the technical legal term) with Vikings owner Zygi Wilf in a private meeting, and according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune and KSTP-TV, discussed such ideas as:

• Building a cheaper, $698 million stadium (which apparently would look like a cross between a greenhouse and an IHOP) whose bond payments would be paid off for the first ten years by the Vikings, and for the rest of the bond term (presumably either another 20 or 30 years, though the Star Trib doesn't say) by Minneapolis entertainment taxes currently being used to pay off the Minneapolis Convention Center.
• Same cheaper stadium, this time paid for with a seven-county tax on hotel stays, a sports-memorabilia tax and a rental-car tax, plus $233 million from the Vikings.
• Use the excess $2 million generated by the Hennepin County's 0.15% sales tax hike for the Twins' new stadium, which is currently being wasted by being poured into the county's general fund.

So far the local reaction appears to be mostly outrage from those whose constituents would be hit up to pay for the stadium: Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak griped that his city shouldn't have to pay all the public costs of a stadium, as in the first plan; Hennepin County Commissioner Mark Stenglein called it "kind of egregious" to think of asking for the Twins stadium tax excess. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty summed up the prospects of a stadium bill passing this session as "unlikely but possible." That seems about right, but I'll still take the under.