CHICAGO — With a deal for a new partially bond-financed Vikings football stadium stalled over site and public-funding issues, Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton this week laid out a revised game plan he hopes will lead to a vote this year on a stadium package.
As long as the stadium provides sufficient public benefit, Dayton supports some financial assistance for a new home for the National Football League team as a way to keep it in Minnesota while creating jobs. The team has committed at least $400 million to the project.
While Minneapolis has floated its own financing plan for three possible sites, the team has joined with Ramsey County to promote a $1.1 billion plan for a venue located in the Twin Cities suburb of Arden Hills. That proposal hit a roadblock due to its reliance on a sales tax increase to cover the county’s share.
Dayton and legislative leaders recently threw cold water on the political prospects of exempting the sales tax increase from a public referendum.
Attention has now shifted to gambling as a source of revenue to replace the sales tax dollars. Dayton, a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, said the public’s share of the stadium could be covered by taxes on stadium items like tickets and souvenirs, and by expanding charitable gaming to include electronic pulltabs.
Dayton had previously pushed for a special session and intended to unveil a stadium plan earlier this month, but he shelved it because of legislative conflicts and opposition to calling a special session without a firm site and funding plan. The Legislature is controlled by Republicans.
In an editorial over the weekend, Dayton called on legislative leaders to set a deadline for crafting legislation and putting it to a vote. Dayton wants a site-neutral negotiating team, consisting of Republican and DFL authors of the legislation; stadium, real estate and financing experts; and an experienced negotiator.
Ramsey County and Minneapolis could add representatives for the negotiations involving their respective projects. The negotiating team would then settle on the best possible deal for both the Arden Hills and Minneapolis projects with the Vikings and the local government partner. Each proposal would be released publicly, sources of non-general fund money identified, and legislative hearings held.
“Rejecting both Ramsey County’s and Minneapolis’ plans to raise local sales taxes without a referendum offers the virtue of keeping the public financing free of any state or local general tax dollars,” Dayton wrote. “The public share of financing this project then falls upon the state of Minnesota. However, to repeat, we can generate the necessary revenues without raising anyone’s taxes by a single dollar.”
State estimates report that an additional $40 million could be raised from charitable gambling by upgrading to electronic pulltabs — using video screens to supplement the current paper tabs used in Minnesota — and offering bingo.
Dayton prefers that the Legislature consider the package during a special session, but if that doesn’t happen, he urged leaders to set a deadline no later than one month after the regular 2012 session begins on Jan. 24.
Republican leaders on Monday showed no inclination of heeding Dayton’s call to establish a timeline, saying that timing issues take a backseat to finding a solution on a legislative package — which has eluded lawmakers for years — that can win passage.
Ramsey officials were scheduled to meet with Dayton Tuesday, his spokeswoman, Katharine Tinucci, said Monday. Though the county initially backed the sales tax option, it is not taking a position on how to cover the public financing.
“The governor is working with the legislative leadership to arrive at a preferred funding source for the public share,” Ramsey County’s chief financial officer, Lee Mehrkens, said Monday.
The triple-A rated county, too, is hoping that lawmakers reach an agreement and act in a special session to get construction started, as delays impact the cost of the plan.
The team, whose lease at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis expires next year, is banking on playing in a new home by 2015.
If lawmakers don’t act this year, any legislation could get pushed back amid capital and budgeting issues in the regular session next year. Redistricting also looms.
“It gets more difficult financially and politically” to get a deal passed next year, Mehrkens said.
In May, the Vikings and Ramsey County, which worked with its financial advisor, Springsted Inc., on the stadium proposal, unveiled their plan for a 65,000-seat stadium on the site of a former ammunition plant in need of redevelopment.
It relied on a $407 million contribution from the Vikings, $300 million from the state, $350 million from the county, $15 million from the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, which owns the Metrodome, and had a $39 million unfunded cost gap.
The price tag includes $100 million in transportation improvements. Under the plan, Ramsey County would issue $350 million of tax-exempt revenue bonds to cover its share, repaying the debt with revenue collected from a 0.5% sales tax and a $20 excise tax on vehicle sales.
The plan is financially sturdy, though it relies on an overly ambitious schedule, leaves the county on the hook for potential cost overruns, and could impair its ability to finance other public projects, according to a state-commissioned report from the Metropolitan Council planning agency and the sports commission.
Minneapolis, too, has floated its own plan that relies on a series of taxes, including a sales tax hike, but the team remains committed to the Ramsey County site.
In a letter to Dayton last week, team owner Zygi Wilf wrote: “The Vikings’ private investment of more than $400 million is specific to the Arden Hills location because of the opportunities that exist with that site. Any other location would not justify anywhere near the level of commitment we have made in Arden Hills.”
The team has long sought a modern and more profitable publicly subsidized home, goals the Minnesota Twins and the University of Minnesota Gophers achieved in 2006 when the Legislature approved financing for the new Twins ballpark in Minneapolis and gave Hennepin County the ability to levy the tax without voter approval, upsetting opponents of public funding for professional sports stadiums.
The state also passed legislation paving the way for a new football stadium for the university, but deferred action on a Vikings’ stadium. The Gophers’ stadium opened in 2009, and the Twins’ in 2010.
To help build local public support for the project, the Vikings launched a media campaign and aired advertisements during the Monday night telecast of its game against division rival the Green Bay Packers to stress the team’s history and local significance.
The Vikings may not have helped the cause, losing to the undefeated defending Super Bowl champion Packers 45-7 and dropping to 2-7 on the season.
