There was a brief – but unsuccessful – attempt Thursday to revive the plan for a new Minnesota Vikings stadium in the Minnesota House.
With the Republican-controlled House ready to adjourn for the day, House Minority Leader Paul Thissen suddenly asked that the plan be sent to the House Taxes Committee. The public subsidy package for the nearly $1 billion stadium has sat dormant since it was defeated Monday in the House Government Operations and Elections Committee, and Thissen said he wanted to revive the proposal by sending it to another House panel.
Republicans blocked the move by Thissen, the lead DFLer in the House, by a 68 to 59 margin.
With the Legislature moving closer to adjournment, the maneuver was the latest sign that DFLers and Republicans may be spending more time jockeying for political advantage over the stadium dilemma than actually moving toward an up-or-down vote on the project.
"The Republicans all voted to [not] move it ahead," Thissen said afterward. "It gives the lie to their seriousness about actually doing" a stadium project this spring.
Afterward, Thissen and Rep. Morrie Lanning, R-Moorhead, the chief House author of the stadium legislation, had a brief but animated discussion on the House floor.
Lanning said the move was nothing more than an attempt by DFLers to politically embarrass Republicans and try to blame them for the stadium stalemate at the Legislature
"This little stunt here is not the best route" to revive the stadium legislation, Lanning said. "This was not a part of a strategy that I was involved" with. "I need to be part of that strategy, and I was not."
