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St. Paul (AP) ― The Minnesota Vikings, who were last in the stadium line at the start of the legislative session, are suddenly gaining ground and prompting increased talk that lawmakers will act on three stadium bills before leaving town this month.

But for those scoring at home, the competing plans for the Twins, Vikings and Gophers are getting harder to keep straight.

A House committee voted 13-9 on Wednesday for a standalone proposal for a $675 million Vikings stadium. On Monday, the state Senate intends to vote on a combo bill paying for both the Twins ballpark in Minneapolis and the Vikings stadium in Blaine with a half-cent sales tax levied in seven metro counties.

The third Metrodome tenant -- the University of Minnesota -- wants an outdoor football stadium that would go up on the school's Minneapolis campus. But that plan has moved from a smooth path to a bumpy road in the last week, emerging from the Senate Tax Committee with a sports memorabilia tax attached.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to move forward on three stadiums this year," Vikings owner Zygi Wilf told the House Governmental Operations and Veterans Affairs Committee before its vote.

The Twins and Gopher bills approved in the House are very different from those under consideration in the Senate.

Combined, the stadium projects exceed $1.5 billion when related road and infrastructure is included. State and local taxes would account for at least $1 billion worth of costs, more if interest payments from long-term borrowing are counted.

To date, the Vikings stadium plan has had the least airing of the proposals.

The House version stands out in a few respects: The private contribution in dollar terms is the greatest at $280 million; the stadium is part of a $1.6 billion, 740-acre mega-development complete with a shopping center, a cinema and other attractions; and the deal involves a financing arrangement that would redirect tax money that would otherwise flow into the general treasury.

The county also would levy a 0.75 percent sales tax, which wouldn't be subject to a voter referendum.

Wilf and his allies in Anoka County argue the public investment pales in comparison to the construction jobs and eventual tax dollars that would result from the project. They say the Twin Cities won't be able to host big events like the Super Bowl and the NCAA's Final Four without a large stadium to replace the aging Metrodome.

"We always talk about the cost of doing these things," said Steve Novak, the county's stadium point man. "But we don't as often as we should talk about the losses if we don't."

But some lawmakers are having trouble getting their arms around the Vikings plan. Private developers led by Wilf are promising $800 million in development near the 68,500-seat stadium.

Wilf stressed Wednesday that the development and the stadium are contingent on each other.

That bothered Rep. Diane Loeffler, DFL-Minneapolis.

"It ought to rise and fall in the Legislature as a separate bill and not hide in the shadow of a Vikings stadium," she said.

Loeffler tried but failed to sever the project's parts in committee. She also railed against the financing model, in which a slice of sales taxes, income taxes and property taxes generated within the stadium district would be rolled back into debt repayment instead of going to the state.

"I'm not prepared to take state general fund dollars when our schools are underfunded, when our higher education tuition is so high and put it into economic development in Anoka County," Loeffler said.

Stadium backers said they're not depriving the state of any money it now gets and they contend the additional tax dollars wouldn't come in without the project.

The bill awaiting action in the Senate lacks that tax setup, but spreads a 0.5 percent sales tax on a larger geographical area: Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott and Washington counties.

Meanwhile, the Senate Tax Committee broke what had been a 6-6 deadlock on the Gophers plan. Sen. John Marty, DFL-Roseville, switched his vote Wednesday and joined the committee's other six Democrats in passing it to the floor. In votes over the last week, Marty opposed the stadium plan. In the end, he said he preferred a plan with a 13 percent sports merchandise tax to one that would take money out of the state's general fund.

Republicans said it was a hollow vote because the tax is unlikely to get Gov. Tim Pawlenty's support. It would raise almost $13 million a year and allow the school to build the stadium without student fees or selling naming rights to TCF Bank.

In a Wednesday interview on the public access show "Almanac at the Capitol," Pawlenty confirmed he would not support the sports merchandise tax.

"There is no way we're going to raise taxes so the taxpayers can pay for money for a stadium that a private entity was willing to pay in partnership with the university," Pawlenty said.

In April, the House voted 103 to 30 for a university-backed plan that would have the state pay half of the $248 million cost.

"Until it hit this committee it was very bipartisan and it was a bipartisan product. I worry we've taken a big step backward," said Sen. Geoff Michel, R-Edina.

On the other stadium issues, Pawlenty said in the television interview that the Vikings proposal needs more work. And he said a metro-wide sales tax wouldn't be enacted without a voter referendum -- something he supports, but that the Twins have said would be a deal-killer.

"We're not going to impose a tax or put a referendum on some unit of government or local units of government unless they volunteer for duty," he said. "Hennepin County raised their hand and said, 'We volunteer."'

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The Metrodome replaced Met Stadium, which used to be in Bloomington. The Mall of America now stands on that site.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)