Despite an apparent melt down over the weekend, Gov. Mark Dayton still has hope that the Minnesota Vikings will get approval for their new state-subsidize stadium this session.
"It's still breathing and they're still in session, so anything could happen," the governor said.
The Vikings stadium bill had some trouble over the weekend. After the last legislative committee gave it approval late Friday, backers had high hopes for House and Senate floor votes over the weekend.
But then Saturday Republican lawmakers decided they would not pass the stadium bill without agreement on the bill to give businesses a tax break and one to do some borrowing for state building projects. Democrats too want to borrow for state projects but they want to borrow more than Republicans say is acceptable.
Those decisions meant not a single vote was taken Saturday or Sunday on the stadium bill and its fate is up in the air.
But Monday morning, Dayton, who has fully backed the bid for a new stadium, took an optimist stance.
Of the stadium's likelihood, he said, "It's a lot better than it was a week ago tomorrow," when a House committee killed the bill. He added, "It's a lot better than it was the week before that," when the bill couldn't get enough votes in a Senate committee to pass.
