House Speaker Kurt Zellers criticized Gov. Mark Dayton on Friday for the governor's remarks blaming charitable gambling interests for stalling progress on a new stadium for the Minnesota Vikings.
Zellers told reporters it was "a little disappointing" for the governor to take "political jabs at people who are looking for defibrillators for county sheriffs, ambulances [and] ice time for five and six-year-old kids.
"We're talking about charities. If it was business, or Democrats or Republicans, I'd get it," said Zellers. "But these are folks that are volunteering their time."
A day before, Dayton had said that charitable gaming representatives were not "on the same planet" with state officials who want to allow electronic bingo and pull tabs in Minnesota's bars and restaurants in order to raise the state's $398 million share for the nearly $1 billion stadium.
Charitable gaming officials said that a state plan to divide the new money with the state's charities did not provide sufficient tax relief for them, and may make electronic bingo and pull tabs financially impractical.
The exchange was the latest evidence of the chasm between the DFL governor, the biggest supporter at the state Capitol for a new stadium, and the Republican House Speaker, who has been at best ambivalent about a public subsidy package for the project.
"I don't see the charities and the Commissioner of Revenue, Myron Frans, on the same planet in terms of their analysis," the governor said Thursday. Dayton said the charities already were making $42 million yearly from charitable gambling, and that adding electronic bingo and pull tabs could add $62 million more for them annually.
"They characterize that as a loss," Dayton said. "I'm just mystified."
