The Senate's chief author of a plan to help build a new Minnesota Vikings stadium said Thursday that the proposal would likely get its first Senate hearing next week.Sen. Julie Rosen, R-Fairmont, said the legislation would probably have its first hearing before the Senate Local Government and Elections Committee.The committee, chaired by Sen. Ray Vandeveer, R-Forest Lake, includes Sen. John Harrington, DFL-St. Paul, a freshman state senator and co-author of the Vikings legislation.More importantly, the 14-member committee includes five freshman Republican state senators and would be an early test of how the new Republican Senate majority, made up of a large contingent of first-time senators, stands on the controversial issue of giving public subsidies to the Vikings while the state faces a $5.1 billion budget deficit."It'll go through Rules. There will be a Viking bill," Rosen said. "It'll probably start in Local Gov."Rosen said she expected simultaneous hearings would also begin in the Minnesota House. "It's all still evolving," she said.Rosen said there were no new developments on whether a local government partner had been found to help fund the stadium project. "There's a lot of talk going on," she said.Under the legislation, which comes as public opinion polls have shown strong opposition to public subsidies for the project, the state, the Vikings and a yet-to-be-named local government partner would each pay roughly a third of the stadium's cost.
Sen. Rosen: Vikings stadium hearing likely next week
The chief Senate author of a plan to build a new Minnesota Vikings stadium said the Senate's first hearing should be next week
By mikekaszuba
April 28, 2011 at 6:48PM
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