Senate deals Twins a defeat

05/02/2006

Key committee unanimously backs stadium sales tax referendum

BY PATRICK SWEENEY and ARON KAHN
Pioneer Press

In a stinging setback for the Minnesota Twins, the Senate Taxes Committee voted unanimously Monday to give Hennepin County residents the right to vote on a sales tax to build a ballpark.

But the Rubik’s Cube of stadium issues facing the Legislature — whether the Twins will get the ballpark the team has sought for more than a decade, whether the Minnesota Vikings and University of Minnesota will get new football stadiums they want, and who might end up footing the bill for any or all of the sports facilities — is far from solved.

The Taxes Committee is scheduled to vote today on a proposal by Sen. Steve Kelley, DFL-Hopkins, to pay for the Twins and Vikings stadiums with a 0.5 percent metrowide sales tax. The tax would produce more than $220 million a year, quickly paying for both pro teams’ stadiums and establishing a growing long-term funding source for mass transit.

The same committee also may vote today on a proposal to substitute Republican Sen. Geoff Michel’s Gophers stadium plan — which relies on a $9.4 million annual grant from the state and a $50 annual student fee — for a Democratic plan that costs more, drops the student fee and pays the state’s share with a new tax.

Senate Taxes Committee Chairman Larry Pogemiller, DFL-Minneapolis, wants to help pay for an on-campus Gophers stadium with a new 13 percent sales tax that would be imposed statewide but would apply only to sports-themed clothing and souvenirs.

With the Legislature three weeks from its adjournment, the stadium situation is this: All three stadium plans remain in play and — despite the House having passed Twins and Gophers bills — enactment of any of the plans remains uncertain.

So far, House Republican leaders have adamantly insisted that they do not want to combine the Twins and Vikings stadium plans into a single bill, do not want to vote for a metrowide sales tax and do not support the new sports-related tax to build a Gophers stadium.

“This is part of the mating dance in the Senate,” Hennepin County Commissioner Mike Opat said of the committee vote Monday.

Opat and Jerry Bell, Twins owner Carl Pohlad’s representative in negotiations with lawmakers, said Monday the county and the team would abandon their stadium plan rather than submit the issue to voters.

“A referendum is a recipe for no progress, no ballpark,” Opat said.

Sen. Julianne Ortman, R-Chanhassen, said she would oppose a metrowide tax.

“Any metro area legislator should be inclined to vote no, because we haven’t had a public discussion on it,” she said.

Kelley said he was not certain he had enough votes in the Taxes Committee to combine the Twins and Vikings bills and create the new seven-county, metrowide tax. But Kelley said he believed he would be able to win passage of the combined package on the Senate floor if it survives the committee.

Kelley, who is Senate sponsor of the Twins-Hennepin County bill that would drop the referendum requirement, said the unexpectedly strong 12-0 vote for a referendum in the Taxes Committee would not necessarily kill that approach.

“It means,” he said of the referendum requirement, “that, at least for purposes of discussion in the Senate, we’re going to have to try another angle on it.”

Pogemiller said Monday he hoped to force Gov. Tim Pawlenty — who signed a 2002 campaign promise to veto any tax increase — to take a formal position in the committee on the stadium-funding alternatives.

Pawlenty has said that he would prefer Hennepin County residents get the opportunity to vote on the proposed sales tax increase, but that he would sign legislation exempting a Twins stadium from current law requiring a referendum.

For the Twins, the unanimous vote to give Hennepin County voters a referendum was a serious blow to a stadium-funding package that was approved by the House 76-55 on Wednesday.

Until recently, many lawmakers had predicted the Democratic-dominated Senate would easily approve the stadium-funding plan worked out between the baseball team and the Hennepin County Board. The Republican-led House was considered a bigger threat to defeat the Twins stadium plan or to require a voter referendum.

The seven metropolitan counties in which Kelley’s proposed tax would be levied are: Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott and Washington.

Kelley’s proposed 0.5 percent tax would equal 10 cents on a $20 purchase. The Hennepin County-only tax for a Twins stadium in downtown Minneapolis’ Warehouse District would be 3 cents on $20, and an Anoka-only sales tax approved by the Anoka County Board for a Vikings stadium in Blaine would be 15 cents on $20.