The Stadium Task Force presents it’s recommendations to Minnesota Legislature, with panel voting 13-4 on option of financing two new sports stadiums, and public financing for new facilities, as opposed to funding. The loan would be repaid to the state through a variety of revenue services.
MICHAEL KHOO: The panel voted 13-4 in favor of recommending the legislature finance two new sports facilities. DFL Senator Steve Kelley of Hopkins offered the motion, saying, the task force needed to give lawmakers and the governor clear guidance on that fundamental point.
STEVE KELLEY: If we're going to move forward on this, we ought to talk about two facilities, and we ought to be relatively specific in recommending that much to the legislature.
MICHAEL KHOO: Kelley's motion calls for public financing for new facilities as opposed to a direct cash subsidy. Under the financing option, the state would issue a loan to be repaid through a variety of revenue sources. Those include taxes on tickets and stadium concessions, as well as more general funding sources, such as a local tax on hotels and restaurants and unspecified gambling revenues.
But some task force members felt uncomfortable recommending the stadium without more definite information on how much money could be generated from such sources. Representative Mary Liz Holberg of Lakeville voted against the Kelley Amendment.
MARY LIZ HOLBERG: It's real easy for me to say, I think we should buy this. But I can't give you a clue how much money is in the purse at this time and whether it's public funding, user fees, surcharges, or whatever.
MICHAEL KHOO: The task force, in fact, approved or set aside for further consideration every funding mechanism proposed that includes options from a 2% surcharge on rental cars at the Twin Cities airport to rental fees for media companies that might use the stadium's press facilities.
DFL representative Al [? Junkie ?] of Wilmer complained the final report would, as a result, be too vague. He noted that the task force voted to remove options for a new lottery game and for certain sports-related gambling, and to replace those proposals with a broader statement on gaming revenues.
[? AL JUNKIE: ?] All right, throw everything on the table. But then I think our time was not well spent the last month and a half listening to every proposal and everyone come forward and then now trying to vote on them because we're getting to a-- basically, what we're doing is throwing it back to the legislature.
MICHAEL KHOO: But others say, the more general the task force's recommendations, the more flexibility lawmakers will have in crafting a final plan. Representative Kevin Goodno is co-chair. The Moorhead Republican says, adding more options gives legislators from different backgrounds space to find consensus.
KEVIN GOODNO: And so I think rather than contracting or constricting the support or reducing the amount of support you have over there, I think, from the report from the task force, we're actually increasing the number of people that would be willing to support the findings of the task force or elements of the findings of the task force.
MICHAEL KHOO: The task force will now draw up a draft report. They'll meet once more to give final approval to the plan just before handing it off to the legislature, which reconvenes at the end of the month. At the Capitol, I'm Michael Khoo, Minnesota Public Radio.
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