The Vikings stadium project in Minnesota has assumed a position on the back burner, due in large part to the shutdown of the state’s government following an inability by the politicians to work out a new budget. And that has given folks in St. Paul an opportunity to derail the plan to build the stadium in nearby Arden Hills.
Frederick Melo of the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports that St. Paul City Council will formally oppose a plan that imposes a one-half percent sales tax throughout Ramsey County, which encompasses both St. Paul and Arden Hills.
St. Paul officials contend that the city will bear $160 million of the $350 million tax burden resulting from the measure, which under the currently proposed deal would be implemented without a public vote, primarily since the public surely would vote it down in a landslide.
“It is unfair and inequitable for the residents and businesses of Saint Paul to be asked to bear a disproportionate financial burden for the construction of a State and regional amenity, particularly when the benefit to Saint Paul taxpayers is tangential at best,” the City Council’s resolution states.
The agreement between the Vikings and Ramsey County gives either part the ability to walk away after July 1, based on the lack of a stadium bill permitting the project to proceed. And that gives other potential locations in the Twin Cities area (or in the City of Angels) an opening for trying to land the stadium, setting the stage for all sorts of alliances and agendas in order to swipe the project from Arden Hills.