Are you ready for some football? Don’t count out a Vikings bailout

If you think the halls of the Minnesota Capitol are filled only with talk about the state’s $4.8 billion budget shortfall, you’re wrong. There are reports of legislative leaders meeting with Viking football representatives as well as team owner Zygi Wilf having a discussion with Gov. Tim Pawlenty. With the Vikings’ 30-year lease at the Metrodome set to expire in 2011, the Vikings are looking for a large infusion of tax dollars to fund their $954 million stadium proposal.

Just when you thought legislators might start some serious endeavors on the state’s budget problem, they may become distracted by yet another round of stadium games. The game is the same one that has been played out again and again around the country. It’s called the “If you don’t build it we will leave” game.

The direct threat is seldom made, but the chatter starts regarding which cities want an NFL franchise. These rumors have already started in the hallways under the marble dome. Any rational individual would have to believe that with the state facing a possible $7 billion shortfall, now is not the time to be handing out several hundred million of taxpayer dollars to a billionaire.  But these are strange times.

Washington offers example
Look no further than Washington, D.C., to witness the latest version of a popular game show: “Who wants to bailout a billionaire?” Our congressional leaders have forked over billions of dollars to banks, insurance companies and Wall Street investment firms, not to mention Detroit automakers. Certainly state lawmakers will come to find football just as important to Minnesota’s economy as federal officeholders thought bankrupt insurance companies were to the U.S. economy.

With our state in a terrible recession and the Legislature facing a huge budget deficit, why would anyone assume that a billion-dollar bailout for the Vikings isn’t possible? Reflect for a moment on the baseball stadium events of 2006. After 10 years of failed attempts to secure taxpayer funding for a new Twins stadium, legislators came up with an ingenious scheme to secure public funding for a new $480 million Twins ballpark:  simply impose a sales tax on the residents in the county where the ballpark was to be built. Then don’t let the citizens of that county vote on the sales tax increase. Presto! The billionaire gets his bailout and only the taxpayers in one county pay the tax.

Recently the president of the Minnesota Building and Construction Trades predicted legislation would be introduced this year with a target construction schedule to begin next year. If the build-anything-anywhere union folks are correct with their prediction, it means a Vikings stadium bill would pass the Legislature and be signed by the governor this year.

Maybe a museum for football?
So what kind of rationale and scheme will lawmakers come up with to bailout billionaire Zygi Wilf?  Maybe they will call the new Viking stadium a museum for football and get some of the $50 million of the constitutional sales tax dedicated to the arts. Or they could make the claim that keeping football in Minnesota will preserve our cultural heritage; after all, they are named the “Vikings.”  Or the new stadium could include a state-run casino, and slot machine revenue would pay off the revenue bonds.

Whether it’s an end around or a Hail Mary pass, the Legislature is lined up to run over the taxpayer for a Vikings stadium in 2009.

With the mention of selling the team or moving the franchise to Los Angeles being used as a scare tactic, legislators are likely to melt like a snowball in April — and taxpayers will be on the hook to hand over hundreds of millions to help poor Zygi build another “millionaire’s playground,” with $5 hot dogs and $10 beers.  You can bet on it.

Phil Krinkie is a former Republican state representative from Lino Lakes and the president of the Taxpayers League of Minnesota. The eight-term lawmaker chaired the House Tax Committee and two other House panels.