Stadium bill passes final hurdle in Senate; Ortman votes no

The Minnesota Senate approved the proposal to build a new stadium for the Minnesota Vikings today by a vote of 36-30.  Carver County’s State Senator, Julianne Ortman, voted no on the proposal.   This was the final legislative hurdle for the bill, and the final action taken by the Legislature this session.  Both houses have adjourned, and the 2012 campaign is underway.

Governor Mark Dayton may sign the bill as soon as this afternoon.  Various reports indicate that team owner Zygi Wilf is en route to the state.

House passes final Vikings stadium bill; Leidiger votes no, Hoppe votes yes

The Minnesota House approved the conference committee version of the bill to build a new Minnesota Vikings stadium on a 71-60 vote last night.  Carver County’s House delegation split on the vote, with Rep. Joe Hoppe voting yes and Rep. Ernie Ledigier voting no, just as they did on the original version of the bill Monday night.

Here are the key provisions of the final bill:

• Here is the final breakdown of the financing:  the team’s contribution will be $477 million ($50 million higher than what they originally committed to), the state’s contribution will be $348 million, and the City of Minneapolis will contribute $150 million.
• The state’s portion of the financing will be handled by allowing electronic pulltabs and bingo.  If those sources do not produce adequate revenue to cover the state’s portion of the expense, the following provisions will “blink on” (in order) to cover the funding gap:  a sports-themed lottery game, and a 10% tax on suites in the new stadium.
• The length of the team’s lease will be 30 years.
• Cost overruns on construction of the stadium will be the responsibility of the builder.  (That should make for some interesting negotiations upfront with the company selected as the general contractor for the facility!)
• Naming rights revenue will count towards the team’s contribution
• The team receives a five-year exclusive arrangement to bring a Major League Soccer franchise into the facility
• Provisions instituting an internet sales tax and financing for the Mall of America expansion were removed from the bill

The Minnesota Senate will take up the bill later today.  You can watch the action here.  State Senator Julianne Ortman has indicated she will vote no on the current proposal because she does not favor using gambling as the means to fund the facility.  If the Senate passes the bill, it will go to Governor Mark Dayton for his signature.

[UPDATE]:  Correction made to the MLS provision.  The bill does contain a provision that would charge rent to the prospective MLS team.

Senate passes stadium bill; Ortman votes no

The Minnesota Senate approved a proposal to build a new stadium for the Minnesota Vikings last night by a vote of 38-28.  Carver County’s State Senator, Julianne Ortman, voted no on the proposal.  22 of the 38 yes votes came from the DFL minority, while only 16 of the 37 GOP Senators voted in favor of the bill.

As with the House bill, dozens of amendments were debated.  Key differences between the House bill and Senate bill include:

• The team contribution:  the House bill calls for a team contribution of $532 million, the Senate bill calls for a $452 million contribution.  Both of these amounts are higher than the $427 million the team has pledged, and the team has not indicated publicly a willingness to go beyond that amount.
• Financing the state contribution:  The Senate bill includes some user fees in addition to electronic pulltabs used in the House bill.  These user fees are a 10% fee on sale or rental of suites in the new stadium, a 10% fee on parking within one-half mile of the stadium, and a 6.875% fee on the sale of officially licensed merchandise at the stadium.
• Other provisions include a tax break for expansion of the Mall of America and $2.7 million in annual payments to the City of St. Paul to utilize on sports facilities (either retiring of debt on the Xcel Energy Center or construction of a new St. Paul Saints stadium are the most likely uses)

The bill now moves to a conference committee to hash out the difference between the two bills.  Chaska State Rep. Joe Hoppe is one of the members of the conference committee.  Once a final bill is agreed to by the conference committee, it goes back to the floor of each body, where they will take an up-or-down vote with no amendments allowed.

House approves Vikings stadium bill; Hoppe votes yes, Leidiger votes no

The Minnesota House approved a proposal to build a new Minnesota Vikings stadium on a 73-58 vote last night.  Carver County’s House delgation split on the vote, with Rep. Joe Hoppe voting yes and Rep. Ernie Ledigier voting no.

40 of the 73 yes votes came from the DFL minority, while only 33 of the 72 Republicans in the House voted yes.

Dozens of amendments to the bill were debated yesterday, most of which were defeated, but there were some substantial changes to the bill that did get through.  These include:

• Reducing the state contribution by $105 million and adding that to the team’s contribution, including a provision that would share naming rights proceeds.  This is a potential sticking point in the bill, as the Vikings have not agree to pay more (at this point) than the $427 million contribution agreed to in the original bill
• Putting the Vikings on the hook for cost overruns during construction of the stadium; this is similar language to the Target Field bill, but it does imply giving the Vikings control over the construction process
• Increasing the lease from 30 years to 40 years
• Increasing the amount of revenue that has to be shared if the Wilfs sell the Vikings after the stadium is built

The bill moves to the State Senate today, which is in session beginning at 9 a.m.  State Senator Julianne Ortman of Chanhassen has indicated she will be voting no on the current proposal.

You can’t always get what you want

Legislative Republicans are mad.  Really mad.  Their top priority for this year’s session fell to Governor Mark Dayton’s veto pen yesterday — their package of business tax cuts.

In fact, here’s what State Senator Julianne Ortman had to say about this yesterday:

“He vetoed our highest priority,” said Ortman said, who also is deputy majority leader. “I think there will be consequences. I think that he has lost the trust of many of my colleagues in the Legislature.”

That may well be true, of course.  The real question is if such anger is justified.

Is it unusual for one side or the other to get shut out on their top priority for a session?  Hardly.  All you have to do is go all the way back to last year — when Gov. Dayton’s top priority was to close the state’s sizable deficit using a balanced package that consisted of about 75% spending cuts and 25% revenue increases.  Did he get that?  No way — the final deal instead borrowed from our schools and sold out future tobacco settlement revenues.

Yet, despite that, Dayton has worked with Republicans and agreed to compromise on some significant issues — including permitting and health and human services reforms.  Dayton has also indicated willingness to sign some elements of the Republicans’ tax bill into law.

That’s the nature of divided government.  Your top priority is probably going to be real low on the other side’s list.  But the job description isn’t to punt when the top priority is off-the-table.  Real leaders double down their efforts in those times and do the best they can for their party and their state.  Too many Republicans seem content at this point to walk away with nothing — no tax bill, no bonding bill, and no Vikings stadium.  Minnesotans should expect better.

Zellers tosses in the towel [UPDATED]

Well, that was faster than expected.  Today, legislative Republicans gave up on their last-minute, no-chance plan to fund a portion of a new Minnesota Vikings stadium and scheduled a vote on the existing stadium proposal in the Minnesota House on Monday.

But even more than the horribly flawed new GOP plan died today.  The curtain was pulled back all the way — finally — on the failed leadership of House Speaker Kurt Zellers.  Zellers revealed — finally — that he was opposed to the Vikings stadium and wouldn’t lift a finger to support the package.  After months of bland platitudes and evasion, Zellers finally has revealed his true intentions.   More than that, though, Zellers revealed his complete unwillingess to work within the parameters of his own job as the leader of the House majority.

“We have difference of opinions & priorities. Voters picked a DFL Governor and a GOP legislature. Voters got what they asked for.”  – Speaker of the House Kurt Zellers

Minnesota has had divided government since 1990.  No one party has controlled the governor’s mansion and both houses of the Legislature since Rudy Perpich was Governor.  Never has the level of dysfunction in St. Paul been so high.  Yes, both parties share blame for this situation, it is incumbent on the key leaders — Zellers, Republican Senate Majority Leader David Senjem, and Governor Mark Dayton to do what it takes to make the state government function on behalf of its citizens (and all of them at times have failed in that role).  By obfuscating, playing political games, and then tossing in the towel when the situation got too hot to handle, Zellers has proven himself to be uniquely overmatched for his job as Speaker.

If the stadium vote fails Monday, Zellers will have rightfully earned his place as the primary goat in this fiasco.  More than that, he will have provided Exhibit A in the DFL case to retake the Legislature.

[UPDATE]:  Give Zellers credit for having the guts to go on KFAN with Dan Barreiro this afternoon.  Don’t give him credit for what he’s saying, though.  What a mess, including this gem:  ”I want to see it pass. I won’t vote for it, but I want it to pass.”  More to come later.

[UPDATE #2]:  You can listen to the Barreiro-Zellers interview here.

The big takeaway, other than often frequent incoherence of what Zellers was saying as best demonstrated by the quote above, was the reality that the next phase of “kill the bill without looking like we’re killing it” strategy is to demand that Gov. Dayton sign the legislative tax bill in order garner the necessary Republican votes for the stadium.  Zellers did his best to hide this element of the strategy, but the gig was up at the end of the interview when Barreiro finally got him to admit that the one thing Dayton could do to earn GOP votes would be to sign the tax bill.  That’s why the vote on the stadium isn’t until Monday — to allow more time for negotiating and application of political pressure.

$148 million short and 5 TBDs too many

Legislative Republicans released the framework of their proposal to use general obligation bonds to fund the state’s share of a new Minnesota Vikings stadium.

What’s notable about the proposal is how much is still left to be worked out at this point.  The full document released (sketchy as it is) is at the bottom of the post.

The proposal would cap the state’s contribution to the new stadium at $250 million.  This is meant to represent various infrastructure costs related to construction of a “roof-ready” stadium.  The city of Minneapolis would still kick in $150 million, using the same means as the previous stadium bill — utilizing existing city sales taxes that support the Convention Center.   The team, meanwhile, has reiterated that its contribution is capped at $427 million, the amount in the previous stadium bill.

That leaves a $148 million hole in the financing for the stadium that has to be filled — the cost of the roof.  That’s “has to be”, as in not optional, as the GOP was claiming yesterday.  Legal consensus is that a stadium without a roof would not be eligible for general obligation bonds.  Where’s the plan for that?  Well, it’s “TBD” — a phrase that appears five times in the single-page proposal.

Is there a path forward here to fill that gap?  Is the team going to kick in that much?  Not likely.  You may be able to squeeze a few more million out of the team and make them responsible for cost overruns, but they certainly aren’t going to be putting in the full amount.  Given the struggle of getting $150 million past the Minneapolis City Council, doubling that amount is a non-starter.  Bringing in Hennepin County as a second local partner isn’t likely, either.  So the most likely and most reasonable option would be to bond the full $398 million state contribution from the previous bill.

But upping the stadium contribution likely means you’re looking at a total bonding bill in excess of $800 million.  (Remember that bonding bills have to pass the legislature by a 60% supermajority.)  DFL votes will be required and they’re not going to sign on to a package that scrimps on needed local projects.  Is an $800 million-plus bonding bill more acceptable to Republican majorities than the previous stadium bill?  Given that many Republicans were perfectly fine with having no bonding bill at all this year, I would say that’s a dubious proposition.

Some of the harsh rhetoric may have faded, but until there’s a real plan to fill that gap and get rid of those TBDs, my post from yesterday still stands:  this proposal isn’t terribly serious and is doing more to kill chances of a stadium than advance it.

View this document on Scribd

Killing it softly: Republicans and the Vikings stadium

Legislative Republicans, including State Senator Julianne Ortman, rolled out their latest strategy to kill the new proposed Minnesota Vikings stadium today.  What’s that, you say?  A new funding proposal can’t possibly be a strategy to kill the bill?  Not true at all.  The flurry of proposals you’ve seen Republicans lately are actually designed to kill the stadium deal while giving a reasonable out for stadium opponents to say that they supported some kind of package for a new stadium.  Because while many legislators don’t want to vote for a stadium, they also don’t want to get tagged with the blame if (when) the team leaves town.

What’s the primary piece of evidence supporting the hypothesis that today’s proposal is just political cover?  None of the other critical parties in the stadium discussion — the team, Governor Mark Dayton, Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, or even the Republican sponsors of the current proposed stadium legislation — were involved in the crafting of the new proposal.  The Vikings, Dayton, and Rybak all find the new proposal unacceptable, while legislative sponsors State Sen. Julie Rosen and State Rep. Morrie Lanning were lukewarm at best.

The press conference where the outlines of this new proposal were sketched out was not confidence-inspiring, either.  At time, the legislators contradicted themselves, and to say the details of what could or could not be counted as “infrastructure” as part of the deal were fuzzy would be an understatement.  Team officials have been working for a decade to get a new stadium, and it’s only now — one day after legislative leaders State Sen. David Senjem and State Rep. Kurt Zellers said the session would be adjourned — that the “silver bullet” legislation comes out of the woodwork?

Zellers, in particular, continues to be a profile in political timidity on the stadium issue. After saying that he would let the legislative process play out and demanding that DFLers deliver one-half of the required votes — 34 votes — in the House, he’s gone back on his word.  The bill moved through House committees as Zellers demanded, and Minority Leader State Rep. Paul Thissen indicated he had the required 34 votes in his caucus for the bill, meaning that Zellers only needed to provide 34 of his party’s 72 members to get the bill passed.  Yet, he won’t move the bill to the floor.

Today’s proposal just continues the string of such dog-and-pony acts perpetuated during the committee process, from the insertion of the racino proposal at one point in the Senate Finance Committee, to attempt to change the funding mechanism to user taxes or mandating a referendum in the city of Minneapolis.

It’s time to put an end to the cover-yer-butt politics pervading the Capitol today.  There’s a stadium bill that has made it through committee.  It has earned a floor vote, and it’s time for our legislators to put their vote where their mouth is. Vote Yes.  Vote No.  But just vote already.

GOP Priorities set: handouts to wealthy people and corporations first, handouts to wealthy people and corporations second, jobs last [UPDATED]

State Senator Julianne Ortman has laid down the law:

Let me be very clear: Before we even consider a vote on a Stadium to benefit one business enterprise, we must secure permanent tax relief for ALL Minnesota businesses and property tax payers.

So what’s in Ortman’s tax bill that is so critical?

$299 million in tax cuts that largely go to the wealthy and corporations over the next three years ($104 million in 2012, and the rest over 2013-14).  The major provision is a phasing out of the state property tax on commercial and seasonal recreational property — a total of $173 million.

The 2012 cuts are paid in the Senate bill for by transferring $104 million out of reserves (on top of the $416 million that the Senate has already offered to transfer out of reserves to pay back part of the K-12 school shift).  There is no payback plan specified for the next budget cycle, so the $195 million will be added on to the existing $1.1 billion deficit.  The House version of these tax cuts finances them on the backs of renters, by slashing the tax credit low- to middle-class renters receive every year.

To summarize:  in order to give tax cuts to wealthy Minnesotans and corporations, legislative Republicans are either  going to drain reserves this year and add to the deficit in the next budgeting cycle OR raise taxes on working families.  That doesn’t sound like a good deal to me.

And only if they’re allowed to accomplish that — and if they get Governor Dayton to cave to their demands for an obscenely small bonding bill — will they move on and give the stadium bill a vote on the floor of both the House and Senate.  There’s one word that describes the performance of the Republican majorities this session:  failure.  It’s time for some new voices in St. Paul.

[UPDATE]:  The conference committee report detailing the final bill agreed to by members of the House and Senate Tax Committees was released last night.  The revised bill is less bad than the original bills that passed both houses.  The total tax cut over the next three years has been reduced to $189 million, $48 million in 2012 and the remaining $141 million in the next biennium.   Instead of phasing out property taxes paid by businesses and cabin owners, the bill instead freezes the amount of taxes paid from these classes of property (today, the total take is indexed to the rate of inflation).  The cost of this proposal is $82 million over the next three years.

However, the revised bill still does not include any long-term financing mechanism.  The $48 million cost for 2012 will be financed from budget reserves and a Revenue Department fund transfer, while the $141 million in the next biennium will be tacked onto the existing $1.1 billion deficit.

Ortman’s Senate Tax Committee looking to get in on Vikings stadium bill [UPDATED]

State Senator Julianne Ortman has requested that the Senate Tax Committee (of which Ortman is the Chair) review the Minnesota Vikings stadium bill.  The bill is currently being heard in the Senate Finance Committee, which was thought to have been the bill’s last stop before going to the full Senate for a vote.

The Senate Tax Committee is considered to have a strong anti-stadium tilt, so a hearing in the committee could stop the bill in its tracks.  Ortman herself is frequently listed as a likely stadium opponent, given her “no” vote on Target Field and past public statements expressing “neutrality” and some skepticism on this issue.

[UPDATE]:  State Senator Claire Robling, the Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, indicated in today’s hearing that their committee will be forwarding the bill to Ortman’s Tax Committee instead of the floor of the Senate.