Stadium Bill Faces Resistance In House Committee

ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) -- State lawmakers will have to hit the ground running to end this session on the proposed end time.

On Monday, they return after taking ten days off for Easter and Passover.

The House would like to end the 2012 Legislative Session at the end of this month.

The House Government Operations Committee will take up the Vikings Stadium bill at 6 p.m. Monday. They will be the third House committee to consider it.

House Speaker Kurt Zellers thinks if the bill can pass out of Monday's committee, there is a good possibility it will come up for a vote in the full House.

The committee is comprised of some stadium bill skeptics, including its chairwoman who supports allowing Minneapolis residents to vote on whether their sales tax proceeds should pay a share of the $975 million project.

A Senate version of the stadium bill has been stalled in that chamber's Local Government Committee with no hearings currently scheduled.

The Vikings Stadium would be built on the current Metrodome site, a little east of where the current stadium sits.

Minneapolis would have to kick in $150 million to pay for it, the Vikings $427 million, and the state nearly $400 million.

Lawmakers are considering using money from electronic pull tabs, electronic bingo and tip-board games to pay the state's share of the cost. If there is not enough gambling money, there would be a backup funding plan.

One of the reasons Monday's committee is considered a tough one is because the chair has said she would like a voter referendum on the bill.

It has not yet passed out of a single Senate committee.