I'm getting tired of stadiums. I'd much rather be writing about all the movie stars who visited St. Paul yesterday. But like it or not this has become the stadium session. For a while there it looked like it might be the gay marriage session, but no. Stadiums.

And MPR's Tom Scheck, who may or may not be getting stadium fatigue, takes a crack at the latest development. This one involves the Senate Taxes Committee creating a sports memorabilia tax to pay for a Gopher football stadium. And according to Tom's report no one seems too excited by it:

[Sen. Larry] Pogemiller has criticized the House plan. That measure involves a $9.4 million annual state payment. Senate Minority Leader Dick Day, a Republican from Owatonna, says his caucus will provide no support for the DFL Senate plan because it spends even more taxpayer money.

"It's DOA on arrival and I will tell you $12.9 million on the floor. It's a major problem for this," Day said.

Other Republicans criticized the sports merchandise tax. Republican Warren Limmer of Maple Grove says the tax is too large and too broad to be earmarked for one U of M stadium.

"You've got taxes on Vikings products, you've got taxes on baseball products and NBA products, and it all goes for just the narrow focus of paying for a college stadium," Limmer said.

And while the stadium issue is dominating the agenda, the Minnesota Taxpayers Association issued a report about a multi-billion dollar problem facing the state. MPR's Laura McCallum had that:

The Taxpayers Association released a report showing that six of Minnesota's largest public pension funds covering 600,000 people had a total of $9.8 billion in unfunded liabilities as of last June. For five of those plans, current contributions made by employees and taxpayers are not enough to close the funding gap.

The association's executive director, Lynn Reed, says one problem is that Minnesota pensions give bonuses to retirees when investment returns go up dramatically, but doesn't reduce pensions when the stock market plummets.

"It's the only state that unconditionally pays out these bonuses that become a permanent part of the base for the benefit of that retiree," he said.

Rep. Phil Krinkie didn't show up for an MPR Midday program Wednesday featuring the GOP candidates for Congress in the 6th District. All the candidates agree that Sen. Michele Bachmann will lead on the first ballot at Saturday's endorsing convention.

During the program Krinkie held a news conference at the Capitol to release a tax plan as reported by the Pioneer Press:

House Republicans on Wednesday called for about $800 million in state tax cuts, most of which would not go into effect until 2008.

The cuts include a $400 million reduction over two years in state income taxes, accomplished by lowering two of the three income-tax rates that kick in as Minnesotans' incomes rise.

Krinkie and House Speaker Steve Sviggum acknowledged there's probably not time to pass the bill this session, and there's no way to tell what the state budget might look like by 2008. That led Sen. John Marty, DFL-Roseville to put out this release:

State Sen. John Marty today released details of a proposed tax bill that includes a property tax rebate and which provides for more than $1 quadrillion ($1,000,000,000,000,000 or $10 to the 15th power) in tax reductions over three years.

“We have a plan for real tax reform and relief,” said Sen. Marty. “This is a balanced approach to tax reform which provides tax relief to every working family in Minnesota.”

The proposed tax relief package utilizes a projected $1.1 billion surplus in the 2008-09 fiscal years. Sen. Marty says that he hopes that the tax cuts will spur economic growth to the point that the projection will go up to the quadrillions to pay for the proposal.

The bill will eliminate income tax rates on the bottom and middle tax brackets. “In addition, those people with the highest incomes in the state won’t pay any taxes – we’ll be paying them,” said Sen. Marty.

“I know I’m not running for Congress, so this proposal may not seem as ambitious as some proposals, but it’s a great proposal if you ignore things like having to pay for it and the money not being there,” said Sen. Marty.

“I’d have gone up to the gazillions, but I was told that wasn’t actually a number,” said Sen. Marty. “The Senate is looking to give Minnesotans a quadrillion in tax relief. After this, no one will pay taxes.”

Is the session almost over? Did I mention there's a big stadium debate in the Senate on Monday?