Even though it is not yet open, the Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts in downtown Minneapolis was a loser Saturday at the Legislature and was the subject of some pointed criticism. The center tried to get $154,000 in state Legacy amendment money to help cap and seal an abandoned well on the site of the project, but a House-Senate conference committee eliminated the money in a preliminary vote. The facility, which is scheduled to open in September, is named after John and Sage Cowles. Cowles is a former chief executive of the Star Tribune. In an usual move two state agencies, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources, objected to having the performing arts center receive money for a project that was already completed. Paul Aasen, the MPCA commissioner, said in a letter that giving the Cowles center Legacy money would set a "dangerous precedent." "It funds a project that is already completed," Aasen said of the well capping. "The costs being reimbursed include loss of time due to construction delays, which has nothing to do with actual clean water efforts." John Jaschke, the water and soil resources board's executive director, agreed. "Retroactive funding is not and never has been allowed in any of our programs because there is no way to verify needs, inspect construction, sign-off on completion, and address ongoing concerns during the project implementation," he wrote. A Senate committee had earlier recommended that the project be funded through the state's Legacy amendment, which uses a state sales increase to fund outdoors, clean water, parks and trails and arts and cultural heritage projects. John Apitz, an attorney representing the Cowles center, unsuccessfully pleaded with the conference committee to fund the project, and said afterward he would seek other state money before the Legislature adjourned Monday. "I was kind of surprised, in particular, at the two agencies that took issue with this," Apitz told the conference committee. "That's not money that was going to them."