Tucked into Minnesota's economic forecast, along with the big picture look at state's spending and revenue projections, were passages that said that stadium cash is not flowing in as quickly as expected.
When lawmakers and the governor approved the Minnesota Vikings stadium, they assumed much of the state's share would come from gambling revenues from new electronic pulltabs.
Here's what the forecast said:
"As part of the Vikings stadium financing enacted in 2012, a small reserve was created within the state general fund. Unlike the cash flow and budget reserves, the stadium reserve is a bookkeeping account that simply reflects the balance of forecast revenue from the expanded gambling matched against forecast expenditures for stadium related costs.
For FY 2013, the projected reserve balance has been reduced from $34 to $16 million. Projected new gambling revenues from stadium legislation are expected to be $18 million (51 percent) below end-of-session estimates. For both the FY 2014-15 and FY 2016-17 biennia, estimates have been reduced $9 million (7.7 percent). The forecast reduction reflects a slower than expected implementation of electronic gaming options and reduced estimates for daily revenue per gaming device. As a result, the stadium reserve balance is now expected to be $47 million by the end of 2017, $36 million lower than end-of-session estimates."
