May 1, 2006 4:53 pm US/Central
Senate Presses Ahead On Stadiums
St. Paul (AP) ―
Senate Democrats on Monday defeated a Republican attempt to pull the Gopher football stadium bill out of the committee where it's been trapped the last four days, setting off partisan squabbling over all three stadium measures.
Sen. Geoff Michel, R-Edina, tried to bring directly to the Senate floor his own Gopher stadium plan, which is similar to what's been requested by the University of Minnesota and which the Republican-controlled House has already passed. But his motion failed on a 27-40 vote.
The Senate's DFL majority is instead supporting a competing Gopher plan authored by Sen. Larry Pogemiller, DFL-Minneapolis, whose district includes the U of M campus where the stadium would be built. But Republicans oppose a provision in that bill to raise $12.9 million for the project with a sports memorabilia tax, and the Senate Taxes Committee has defeated it several times on a 6-6 vote, with one DFLer also opposed.
"You're all sitting here holding this show up," Senate Minority Leader Dick Day, R-Owatonna, said to Democrats. "The best way not to hold this show up is to vote with Senator Michel, get this back on the Senate floor, and like the House pass a bill that doesn't raise taxes."
But Democrats rejected that effort, saying the bill should go through the normal committee process. The Senate Taxes Committee, which Pogemiller chairs, was scheduled to meet again Monday evening to further discuss both the Gopher plan and the Twins and Vikings stadium proposals.
Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson, DFL-Willmar, reaffirmed his goal of having the full Senate vote on all three stadium plans by the end of the week.
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The Metrodome opened in 1982.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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