Dayton: GOP stance puts Vikings stadium plan in 'limbo'

Posted at 4:27 PM on November 2, 2011 by Paul Tosto
Filed under: Politics, Sport, Taxes

Gov. Mark Dayton emerged from a meeting with GOP lawmakers today saying that his plan to propose a Vikings stadium public financing option is in limbo, that the GOP rejected his timetable for a special session by Thanksgiving and that at this point he won't be putting out a specific proposal next Monday.

His tone was decidedly downbeat, telling reporters he had canceled stadium meetings planned for the next few days.

"Everybody gets away with saying what they're against. If everyone's against some piece of it... that's the end of the project," Dayton said.

"I'm disappointed. We were making progress, I thought, until today," he added. "It just throws it all into limbo and the clock is ticking."

GOP leaders had said a few minutes earlier that they were still committed to finding a solution to providing public funding for a Vikings stadium but that they now wanted public hearings to let Minnesotans weigh in on the matter.

With no special session, the next opportunity would be the regular legislative session starting in January and running through May. Dayton, though, indicated that he wasn't prepared to put out a plan that would "get beat up" for six months and said it's up to legislative leaders now to lay out their ideas.

We have yet to hear from the Vikings on this afternoon's news. But team officials made it very clear earlier in the day that they don't want to wait until next year.

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