Politics & Government

Hornstein, Dibble: 'No Path' To New Vikings Stadium

Southwest's legislators also oppose raising money on the backs of gamblers.

All week long, Gov. Mark Dayton has been making an all-out blitz in support of a deal to provide the Minnesota Vikings taxpayer dollars for a proposed stadium in Arden Hills.

According to two of Southwest Minneapolis' state legislators, though, Dayton may not even get close enough for a sack.

"I don’t see a groundswell of support for any of the proposals on the table," said Rep. Frank Hornstein.

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"I don’t see a path for successful passage for a stadium," state Sen. Scott Dibble agreed. "I just dont think the votes are there."

In both chambers, the two legislators said, there is bipartisan opposition to spending public money on a stadium, even if Dayton holds to his proposed cap of $330 million in state contributions. Given the difficult soil cleanup posed by the Vikings' preferred site—a former ammunition factory—the total cost of the project could balloon.

Find out what's happening in Southwest Minneapoliswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"It's kind of a fool’s errand to spend a lot of time and political capital on things that, at the end of the day, have little consequence," Dibble said.

Both Dibble and Hornstein say they would oppose any stadium deal, whether the tax dollars came from the current budget or the long-proposed-and-opposed non-tribal casino in downtown Minneapolis or "racino" at Canterbury Park.

"What I don’t see in our area is people willing to support using gambling proceeds to fund this," Hornstein said. "From my perspective, there’s a lot of costs to utilizing gambling revenue: We have a large population of folks who are considered chronic gamblers. It's really not a good way to raise money and it has a high social cost.

"We’re already not doing what we absolutely need to be doing to remain competitive over the long term," he added, calling for "meaningful" investments in early childhood education and mass-transit.

"Those are the things that make a difference," he said.


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