Rep. Peppin: No Vikings stadium hearing in House this week

In a somewhat surprising move, the chair of the House panel where the Minnesota Vikings stadium legislation is to have its first hearing said Tuesday that she would not hold a hearing this week and was unsure when it would occur.With just 28 days left before the Legislature's scheduled adjournment, Rep. Joyce Peppin, R-Rogers, who chairs the House Government Operations and Elections Committee, said the panel had too much other pressing business. "Our agenda is very packed and, as you know, that bill will take a lot of time," she said.Peppin acknowledged that, because of this Friday's legislative deadline for hearings on bills, the plan to provide public subsidies to the Vikings for a new stadium would likely have to go to a House Rules Committee to get "special dispensation" to be heard after the deadline."I'm not going to kill the bill here," said Peppin. "It has to come through this committee so, you know, we'll give it a shot at this committee. . .[but] I don't think we'll get it in this week."I don't have a date yet," she added. "We have a million bills, and I view this as something that we should do after we get all of our other work done. So, we'll see what happens.""We have such a full agenda, and we're getting [other] bills referred from other committees. So, we're going to deal with those first," she said.Five years ago, Peppin voted against a proposal to provide public subsidies for the Minnesota Twins' new Target Field in part she said because the legislation exempted Hennepin County from holding a citizens' referendum before levying a countywide sales tax to help build the stadium. The Vikings legislation would likewise not require a referendum.