Legislators dig in for a long day

Lawmakers rolled into the Capitol today for what's expected to be their last long haul of the 2006 session. They're aiming to wrap it up before church on Sunday.

With votes planned on a $1 billion construction projects package, Twins and Gophers stadiums and tax and spending bills, some legislators were still wheeling and dealing on the sidelines to try to get their projects included. Others were preparing retirement speeches.

The Minnesota Senate convened shortly after 11 a.m. and unanimously approved legislation designed to help consumers prevent identity theft. The bill — which would let consumers freeze their credit reports to prevent tampering — now goes to Gov. Tim Pawlenty for a signature. The Senate then recessed until 3 p.m.

The session is on track for a smooth finish after top legislators and the GOP governor negotiated a framework for tax relief and spending earlier in the week. The Minnesota Supreme Court saved them from a nasty budget headache when it let a disputed cigarette fee stand.

One sign of the lighter mood: The lights were turned down momentarily in the House as representatives took up a bill restricting strip clubs, and a lawmaker reached over to put some cash in the pocket of Rep. Dean Urdahl, the bill's sponsor.

The House passed the bill 129-1. It would ban strip clubs within a half mile of a church of school, but local governments would still have the power to allow them.

The construction project deal came late Friday after 10 hours of negotiations in Pawlenty's office, resolving the main task of this year's non-budget session. It includes money to expand the Faribault state prison and event centers in Bemidji and Marshall, but not in Duluth.

But a vote on the final bonding bill might have to wait until early Sunday as revisors scramble to process the thick document.

Tax negotiators finished their work on a bill that would help married couples and middle-income taxpayers ensnared by a quirk known as the alternative minimum tax. The bill, however, didn't contain property tax relief sought by both houses and Pawlenty; the lead negotiators said there wasn't enough money.

The tax provisions would cut an average of $74 off the taxes of 419,300 married couples, while more than 37,000 middle-income taxpayers would save hundreds of dollars by avoiding the alternative minimum tax.

Businesses would also get a small break — they wouldn't have to make early sales tax payments in June to help the state balance its budget, a practice that's been in effect for more than 20 years.

House Taxes Committee Chairman Phil Krinkie, R-Lino Lakes, said he was disappointed the conference committee didn't adopt his proposal for property tax rebate checks for homeowners.

"That fell by the wayside because spending always takes precedence over reducing taxes in the state of Minnesota," Krinkie said.

Earlier, critics of a Minnesota Twins stadium bill that's on course for final passage staged a protest outside the Governor's Residence, demanding that he veto the $522 million ballpark proposal. Gov. Tim Pawlenty has pledged his support if the Legislature send the bill to him.

The stadium would be paid for mostly with an increased Hennepin County sales tax. No voter referendum will be held.

Auto mechanic Dave Bicking says opponents won't forget at the ballot box in November and hopes to knock supporters out of office.

Other critics say they're exploring legal options for blocking the stadium.

Some held signs warning supportive lawmakers that their votes would haunt them in November's elections. "Your Next Office — Unemployment," read one.

Bicking said the 0.15 percent sales tax in Hennepin County should of at least been subject to a referendum. The tax — three cents on a $20 purchase — would pay for three-quarters of the $522 million ballpark in downtown Minneapolis.

"It's not the end," Bicking said. "It's the beginning of a new stage where we hold some of them accountable."

Before House and Senate lawmakers weighed in Saturday, a committee working on the tax bill provided some high drama on the stadium front. They nearly attached an amendment to that bill that would have allowed for a petition-driven referendum on the Hennepin County tax. Sen. Mee Moua, DFL-St. Paul, switched her vote at the last minute, killing the measure.

Other critics said Twins owner Carl Pohlad was getting a sweetheart deal, paying $130 million toward the stadium but gaining all game-day revenue and in-stadium advertising proceeds.

Passions run high on the other side, too. St. Paul resident Dave Baker interrupted his jog to criticize the protesters, provoking a brief shouting match.

"If we would have built it 10 years ago, it would have been half the cost," he said.

The Twins today are expected to take what amounts to a homerun trot at the State Capitol, as team and legislative officials predicted that the House and Senate would formally approve a new baseball stadium that only two months ago seemed like a long shot.

After a quarter-century and two World Series championships, the Twins seemed set to receive the state's endorsement for a plan that will move them from the Metrodome and into a 42,000-seat open-air stadium that will open in four years at the opposite end of downtown Minneapolis. The $522 million structure, approved by a key committee Friday, will be built largely with a much-debated 0.15 percent sales tax in Hennepin County that will be put in place without a referendum.

Even the project's most visible critics, were conceding defeat. "It's 99 percent likely to happen," said Sen. John Marty, DFL-Roseville, one of the Senate's biggest stadium critics. "They got a busload of lobbyists."

It was a huge turnaround from just a few months ago when Twins and Hennepin County officials, in trying to jump-start what seemed like a project without a future, stood outside Pawlenty's residence and expressed frustration with the lukewarm support they said the governor and other legislative leaders were giving.

House Speaker Steve Sviggum predicted Friday that both the House and Senate would have plenty of votes for passage, including as many as 80 votes in the House.

But he said the House would likely wait until later in the day -- the last meaningful day of the legislative session -- to pass the stadium plan so that legislators were not sending a message that the ballpark was more important than other lingering issues.

"I just think it's a bad statement," said Sviggum, who said state bonding and tax legislation would be voted on first.

The Senate is expected to consider the stadium after the House vote, and Pawlenty has indicated that he will sign the legislation.

Committee votes

The order may not matter to the Twins, whose officials celebrated Friday morning when a House-Senate conference committee ended days of discussion and quickly voted for the project.

Only one committee member, Sen. Don Betzold, DFL-Fridley, voted against the proposal, but he said he did so because it did not also include a new stadium for the Minnesota Vikings in Blaine.

Though the 10-member committee's debate took many turns, the Twins' prospects remained above the fray as legislators attempted to add a Vikings stadium and a metro-wide sales tax to help fund an ambitious, but unrelated, transit plan.

In the end, Sen. Steve Kelley, DFL-Hopkins, said the metrowide sales tax simply lacked support. "We were taking on a significant [undertaking], which was to solve two stadiums and a metro transit issue at the same time," he said.

When the midmorning committee vote was announced Friday, a normally taciturn Jerry Bell, the lead Twins stadium negotiator, broke into a smile.

"This ensures our future," he said, surrounded by reporters. "It keeps baseball in Minnesota for 30 years at least, probably longer.

"There's a very, very good chance that we'll finally build a ballpark," Bell said.

Hennepin County Commissioner Mike Opat, the primary negotiator for the county, was likewise confident.

"I feel good about the House. I feel good about the Senate too," he said in handicapping today's floor votes. "They understand the Twins need an answer."

Under the plan, the Twins will be responsible for construction overruns and the county has estimated that it will pay for $90 million of surrounding infrastructure.

Should the team be sold by owner Carl Pohlad in the first year after the stadium is built, 18 percent of the gross proceeds would go to a newly formed ballpark authority, with the percentage declining by 1.8 percent each year over the next decade.

Many are still opposed

As the legislative vote moved toward the inevitable, many observers spent the day analyzing how the team's decadelong quest for a new stadium had so suddenly galloped across the finish line.

Marty said the team's lobbyists had created a false impression that many Minnesotans either favored a new stadium or simply were tired of the debate -- a claim that he said was not borne out by a series of polls in the past week showing that opposition to the stadium was still overwhelming.

On Sunday, a Star Tribune Minnesota Poll showed that just 23 percent felt the Twins needed a new stadium the most over the Vikings and the University of Minnesota football team; two-thirds opposed public funding for a new stadium; and 78 percent felt that, should public money be spent on the stadium, a referendum should be required.

Rep. Joe Mullery, DFL-Minneapolis, said excessive coverage of the stadiums by the news media may have also created momentum.

"What's the press doing? They're covering stadiums," he said. "It's pretty discouraging. Real issues aren't being brought forth."

Others said Republicans, looking to create a can-do image in an election year, seized on the stadium as a way toward victory and convinced many legislators outside Hennepin County that they could politically vote for the increased sales tax.

A key step came on April 20

The Twins' defining stadium moment actually might have occurred on the night of April 20, when the House Taxes Committee -- despite consisting of a large number of opponents -- voted not to require a referendum, and then later voted narrowly for the proposal.

As legislators one by one cast their votes, team officials and their lobbyists sat nearby keeping a careful tally on a makeshift score sheet.

As the stadium gained momentum, Rep. Ann Lenczewski, DFL-Bloomington, said it was clear that many citizens -- both for and against -- were watching.

"I can't go anywhere," Lenczewski, a stadium opponent, said Friday. "Everybody's talking about it.

"People of Hennepin [County] have just figured out what just took place," she said. "It's a huge issue."

Though few expected any last-minute snags, Hennepin County Commissioner Mark Stenglein was cautious Friday.

"It's a step closer," he said after the conference committee vote. "It's not [done] until the governor signs the bill."

But opponent Dave Bicking, who is organizing today's protest at the governor's residence, was more resigned.

"We're exhausted," he said. "Done deal? To be honest, it looks that way."

Mike Kaszuba • 612-673-4388

The Associated Press contributed to this report.