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TIM PUGMIRE: Saint Paul Mayor Randy Kelley's plan to build a new Minnesota Twins ballpark breezed through a Senate committee last week. Its first test before a House panel got a similarly warm reception. Kelley told members of the House Jobs and Economic Development Finance Committee that his proposal to create a 3% food and beverage tax and a $1 ticket surcharge would save the Twins from contraction.

RANDY KELLEY: We believe that we can create a package that allows us to create the revenue streams that we need, while the state's participation is largely associated with providing its ability to issue bonds to construct the ballpark and to give us authorization to tax ourselves.

TIM PUGMIRE: Kelley says a Twins stadium could bring an estimated 2 million people to downtown Saint Paul annually. DFL Representative Tom Osthoff of Saint Paul is sponsoring the House bill. The Chamber of Commerce, restaurant owners, and labor leaders are backing the measure. Parent and baseball fan Amy Fletcher urged legislators to do the right thing for Minnesota.

AMY FLETCHER: I've seen the vitality that the Xcel Energy Center has brought to Saint Paul during the hockey season and strongly believe that an outdoor ballpark can do the same in the summer. While, like everyone else, I don't look forward to paying additional taxes, I know that we must continue to invest in our city to keep our community nationally recognized as a great place to raise a family.

TIM PUGMIRE: DFL Representative Michael Paymar of Saint Paul says, he thinks most Minnesotans want to keep the Twins. His legislation would build a stadium financed with, primarily, user fees such as ticket taxes, personal seat licenses, media fees, rental car tax, and a metro area tax on the sale of sports memorabilia. Paymar says, building the stadium as part of a development of adjacent restaurants, shops, and housing would also generate more money.

MICHAEL PAYMAR: We envision it being used outside of the 80 home games a year on multiple days with multiple kinds of events so that the stadium district is viable. There's people coming to the Downtown. There's people coming to the stadium district. So there would be a consistent revenue stream.

TIM PUGMIRE: Stadium opponents criticized both bills as bad public policy. Dan McGrath of "Progressive Minnesota" helped defeat a Saint Paul stadium referendum three years ago to create a citywide sales tax. He told lawmakers that voters should not be left out of the process this time.

DAN MCGRATH: In 1999. 75,000 people showed up to the polls to vote on this very issue. And to snatch that away from voters and not allow for that engaged public debate simply is a mistake when you're trying to legislate tax increases of this magnitude.

TIM PUGMIRE: Members of the committee agreed and amended the Paymar bill to be contingent on a successful city referendum. Representative Dan McElroy, the Committee Chairman, says he thinks a referendum is essential for either bill to gain final House approval.

The panel sent both Twins bills forward without recommendation. The Osthoff bill is headed to the House capital investment committee and the Palmer bill to the tax committee. I'm Tim Pugmire, Minnesota Public Radio.