NEW BRIGHTON, Minn. -- Residents of a Minnesota county facing a local sales tax hike to help build a new, billion-dollar NFL stadium spoke out overwhelmingly Wednesday in favor of letting them vote on the plan.
The commission could call a public vote on the proposed half-cent county sales tax to pay for a portion of the $1 billion stadium, which stadium supporters fear voters would reject and threaten the Vikings' continued presence in Minnesota.
But those demanding a public vote outnumbered stadium supporters by a more than two-to-one margin at the hearing, though supporters balanced it out some toward the meeting's end when commissioners allowed non-Ramsey County residents to speak. Many tax foes said they were Vikings fans but don't believe scarce county resources should subsidize a privately held team.
Another public hearing is scheduled for October, and the charter commission is likely to decide whether to hold the vote at that meeting. As proposed, the amendment would ask voters: "Shall Ramsey County be prohibited from using any revenues, including those raised by taxes or bonding, to fund or assist in funding a Major League Baseball or National Football League sports team or stadium."
The vote likely wouldn't occur until November 2012. Stadium supporters say that delay -- and the likelihood that tax-averse voters would defeat the tax -- would together deal the proposal a fatal blow. The Vikings' Metrodome lease runs out at the end of the current season, and repeated statements by team officials that that nearly 30-year-old venue is no longer sufficiently profitable have raised fears that team could be wooed to relocate to Los Angeles, currently in aggressive pursuit of a new NFL franchise.
"If we wait nine months from the end of the season to vote, we may not have a team to vote on," said Diggz Garza, a St. Paul resident. "If there's no team and they leave, then I guess we all lose."
Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press
