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MICHAEL KHOO: The Twins' unexpected success on the ball field has helped jumpstart a stadium drive that many believed dead last month, the House Tax Committee is reconsidering the ballpark issue but only after removing most of the public subsidies. Twins president Jerry Bell isn't optimistic the team will accept the new package.

JERRY BELL: Right now, I'd say it's doubtful.

MICHAEL KHOO: Bell says he'll discuss the proposal with team owner Carl Pohlad over the weekend. A committee vote is expected on Monday. The previous stadium plan contemplated a $140 million interest-free loan and a sales tax free zone in and around the ballpark. The new plan cancels the tax exemption and imposes a market interest rate estimated at around 6%.

Lawmakers say the only state contribution will be waiving the taxes on construction materials for the $300 million ballpark, a break estimated to be worth about $10 million. Bell wouldn't detail his objections to the proposal, but he made clear in committee the team can't be expected to build the stadium on its own and still compete with other teams playing in publicly subsidized ballparks.

JERRY BELL: We operate in a subsidized industry. That's a fact, particularly as it relates to facilities. To think that any private citizen, no matter how wealthy, can compete with the rest of the country, subsidizing their portion of the industry, is ludicrous. You can't do it.

MICHAEL KHOO: The bill's chief House author, Representative Harry Meyers, says the new plan obligates the Twins to finance 97% of the stadium, one of the largest private contributions among recently constructed ballparks. The White Bear Lake Republican says legislators are obligated to negotiate shrewdly, but he says inflexibility could ruin the deal.

HARRY MEYERS: It's our responsibility to drive a hard bargain and yet not drive the team away. And where's the line? Where do you cross the line? Maybe this bill did it, I don't know.

MICHAEL KHOO: House Republican leaders, however, have insisted on limiting the state's role as a condition of approval. Tax Chair Ron Abrams of Minnetonka says he'll withhold final judgment until he hears all sides of the discussion. But he notes even with the reduced public funding, some lawmakers have reservations about the team's agenda if the House and Senate sit down to negotiate a deal.

RON ABRAMS: There's a suspicion among a number of members that what the Twins want is a bill to get to a conference committee and that they'll have the conferees do whatever the Twins want, and then it comes back for one vote, and you're either voting for or against baseball. So I think that just given the history of the issue, there's a tremendous amount of mistrust and distrust of the Twins.

MICHAEL KHOO: A separate Twins package is on hold in the Senate, pending House action. By some estimates, the Senate plan obligates the state to cover more than half the cost of the stadium. DFLer Dean Johnson of Wilmer is carrying the package in the Senate. He says the House approach may have gone too far.

DEAN JOHNSON: I think the house has taken the beaver approach to the ballpark, and that's just chipping away at it and trying to decimate what I think is a very good proposal from day one. Having said that, I think that there are options that we can look at in regard to the financing.

MICHAEL KHOO: Johnson says it's too early to say what form a compromise might take. He only notes that any successful deal will have to satisfy lawmakers, the public, and the Twins. At the Capitol, I'm Michael Knoo, Minnesota Public Radio.