Posted: 04/27/12 01:24, Edited: 04/27/12 11:22
by Dave Mindeman
Wait a minute.
It is hard to keep up with the complications that keep popping up around the Vikings Stadium bill. It's like...hold on a minute....who's doing what?
The latest round has a very disturbing clarification:
Once it is built, any Vikings stadium operating cost overruns ultimately will be the public's responsibility.
Hold on there. When we were discussing the Ramsey County site, the public responsibility was capped. We had limited liability. It seems to me the Vikings were going to cover cost overruns.
And what's even more important, the state portion of financing, in this bill, is built around the charitable gambling "compromise" which is pretty wobbly when it comes to guaranteed revenue.
I hate to admit it, but the Legislative Republicans may have a more stable alternative....
(Rep. Mike) Benson said he'd propose a 4-percent income tax surcharge on Vikings players and executives who earn more than $200,000 a year; sales tax increases on sports memorabilia, liquor and purchases in the new stadium; and a sales tax on online purchases of NFL merchandise.
Even Sen. David Hann was on board with that aspect.
Consider the irony....Senate Republicans are willing to tax a select group of their "job creators" to make a billion dollar stadium work. In fact, that proposal has a whole slew of new taxes. Oh, the humanity.
That's how crazy this Viking thing has gotten. Every revenue source that was proposed last year and given the old back of the hand by indignant Republican legislators has now surfaced in this supposedly "low" priority Vikings bill. I mean everything....racino, pull tab gambling, memorabilia taxes, liquor taxes, taxes on income....you name it, the GOP is proposing it.
Forgive me, the bizarreness of it all is overwhelming.
Judging by the recent dress code at the Capitol, maybe we should use a tax on purple paint as our revenue source....
