During hours of debate on Tuesday over building a state-subsidized Minnesota Vikings stadium, the Minnesota Senate approved -- and then quickly voted again to reject -- significant user fees to fund the project.
The proposal would have vastly expanded user fees on, among other things, tickets, concessions, merchandise, stadium signage and the Vikings share of league revenue sharing. The Vikings and stadium bill sponsors have said the proposal would have made the measure unworkable for the team.
After the proposal passed the Senate 34-33, giving it a narrow one-vote winning margin.
Then after bill sponsors and Vikings lobbyists scrambled, the Senate reconsidered the vote. On second thought, and after emotional appeals for and against the user fee concept, the Senate voted 35-30 on the fees, ending their brief life.
Below you can see the original vote and the changed votes.
It appears Republican Sens. Mike Parry, who voted for the user fees originally, and Gen Olson, who voted against the user fees originally, did not vote on the second consideration. GOP Sen. Gary Dahms changed from 'no' to 'yes' and DFL Sens. Rod Skoe, Dick Cohen, Chuck Wiger and Jim Metzen moved from 'yes' to 'no.'
A separate change added a small amount of user fees to the financing.
