Top News

St. Paul (WCCO) ― The House Taxes Committee was considered the toughest test for the Minnesota Twins stadium bill, but by a narrow vote of 15 -13, the team cleared its toughest hurdle yet.

It is now on course for a full House vote by the middle of next week after winning narrow approval Friday from the Taxes Committee.

The bill has at least one more committee to clear. House Speaker Steve Sviggum is gearing up for a Wednesday or Thursday vote by all 134 House members. The Senate, which historically has been less of a stadium obstacle, hasn't scheduled action of its own.

Sviggum is putting pressure on lawmakers to pass the ballpark within a week and predicting they will.
"The Twins stadium proposal will pass," said Sviggum. "and I will tell you it should. I think it is in the best interest of the state of Minnesota. "

After three days of intense scrutiny from the House Taxes Committee -- spanning almost 20 hours -- even opponents acknowledged it would be difficult to derail the proposal. It would raise three-fourths of a $522 million project cost through a 0.15 percent hike in Hennepin County's sales tax.

On Thursday night, the committee turned back a provision that would have put the tax to a voter referendum. Hennepin County is home to Minneapolis and one-fifth of the state's population.

"The votes are there in the House to prevent the referendum from being placed on the bill," said Sviggum, R-Kenyon.

Still, he said, the stakes will be high in next week's vote. "If the stadium proposal does not pass this year, baseball will not be here in Minnesota," he said.

The Twins are playing on a year-to-year lease in the Metrodome.

Billionaire banker Carl Pohlad, the owner of the Twins since 1984, has been pursuing public subsidies for an outdoor ballpark since the mid-1990s. He has pledged $130 million to the project and promised to share profits with the county if he sells the team within 10 years of it being built.

Since 1982, the Twins have shared the Dome with the Minnesota Vikings and University of Minnesota football team. Twins officials have long complained of playing baseball in the corner of a football field and say they can't make enough money to stay competitive with their peers.

Twins officials expect a new stadium to generate $40 million more than they're making now, some of which they'll plug into player payroll.

The current plan is for a 42,000-seat ballpark near the main Minneapolis entertainment district, with views of the city skyline.

The ballpark itself is due to cost $390 million, but preparing the site and building roads around the stadium adds to the price tag.

The Taxes Committee considered several amendments Friday in a hearing that was far more sedate than a boisterous Thursday meeting in Bloomington, where stadium proponents and opponents made their voices heard.

The committee passed one amendment capping Hennepin County's infrastructure spending to $90 million. But it defeated one forcing the Twins to share with the public some of the extra revenue they'll receive from a new ballpark. The panel also shot down another one that would have spread a stadium tax across the state to pay for a retractable roof.

"We ought to put out a first-class stadium," said the roof amendment's sponsor, Rep. Ron Erhardt, R-Edina. "As long as this thing is going up anyway, let's do it right."

But Twins Sports Inc. president Jerry Bell said the site and design make a roof unworkable and too expensive.

"If this bill passes without a roof amendment, we will not be back asking for a roof," he said.

The Vikings and Gophers have stadium bills of their own. The university has won House backing for an on-campus stadium, while the Vikings are further from their goal. Sviggum said once the Twins bill is voted on, the House will consider the Vikings proposal for a $790 million stadium project in Blaine.

(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)