GOPers slam Vikings stadium

GOPers slam Vikings stadium

Phil Krinkie, the former Republican legislator, still does not like public subsidies for sports stadiums. Now the president of the Taxpayers League of Minnesota, Krinkie said last week that a proposal to build a new Vikings stadium would raise taxes more than $500 million. He called on taxpayers to contact the seven Republican legislators who are helping sponsor that legislation.

"After months of rhetoric from GOP lawmakers about not raising taxes, [the Republican sponsors] authored legislation that would pay for two-thirds of a $900 million stadium on the backs of taxpayers," Krinkie said in an e-mail.

"These wayward Republicans need to hear from you today! Producing a balanced budget signed by the Governor is job one. Increasing the tax burden on Minnesotans to build a playground for billionaire owners and millionaire players is irresponsible."

As a legislator in 2006, Krinkie was a vocal -- though unsuccessful -- opponent of using taxpayer subsidies to build Target Field.

In another glancing Republican blow against the stadium, Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dave Thompson sent out a letter calling it "inconceivable that we would fund a stadium to help multimillion-dollar athletes pay their mortgages while many middle-class Minnesotans are struggling to pay theirs."

MIKE KASZUBA

DFL Gov. Mark Dayton's administration and Republican legislative leaders made a unanimous prediction last week: The legislative session will end on time with a balanced budget.

Every year, legislators and political watchers at the Capitol engage in a guessing game of trying to predict when the session will end.

The worries are always the same: Will a budget deadlock require a special session? Will legislators ruin my summer?

The bit of parlor intrigue has been a little tenser this year. Legislators have only six weeks left, and there's still a vast divide between Dayton and the Republican-controlled Legislature on how to balance the budget.

But at a Humphrey School of Public Affairs forum last week, House Speaker Kurt Zellers, Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch and two top Dayton commissioners agreed that the session would end by the May 23 deadline.

BAIRD HELGESON

Online righties, lefties coming this summer

Online activists, get ready to rumble in Minneapolis.

Netroots Nation, the annual convention for online activists from the left, will be held in Minneapolis June 16-19. RightOnline, the annual conference for online activists from the right, will be here June 17-18.

A sample of their differences?

From the RightOnline organizer: "The progress we have made in online activism and grassroots organizing helped folks like you make a meaningful impact on important public policy debates, however the Obama administration continues to threaten our freedoms on a daily basis."