Minneapolis Vikings Dome Subsidy Blocked by Taxpayer Wrath
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The formula to get taxpayers to pay for professional sports stadiums usually works this way: Promise construction jobs and downtown revitalization, and threaten to move the team if you don’t get what you want.
That strategy is meeting stiff resistance in Minnesota, where unhappiness with cuts to education and human services, and Tea Party politics in the Legislature have stalled efforts to obtain a public subsidy to build a $1 billion stadium for the National Football League’s Vikings. The fight has thrust the state’s Democratic governor, Mark Dayton, 65, into the role of head cheerleader for the Vikings.