Editorial: Mpls. legislators vote against their own city

Published 11:13 am Wednesday, May 9, 2012

 

It must be nice to be that aloof.

As part of the stadium bill plan that passed the Minnesota House on Monday, nine of the 11 representatives from Minneapolis voted against it, and on Tuesday, four of six senators from Minneapolis voted against it. All are DFLers. The initial bill called for the state to pour $398 million in public funds from forms of gambling into a stadium with a total price tag of $975 million.

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That means those 13 Minneapolitans were opposed to taking nearly $400 million from people statewide — give or take $105 million — and having it poured into a nearly $1 billion sports palace to be built in their city’s own downtown.

If the state wanted to pour $400 million from any kind of revenue into any scale of an improvement project in Albert Lea, you can rest assured our lawmakers and local officials would be for it — resoundingly.

Some of the Minneapolis lawmakers didn’t like gambling as a source of revenue. Some didn’t like the end-run around the city’s sham requirement for a citywide referendum. Some just didn’t like spending money on a football stadium when other aspects of state government were suffering.

All those are valid concerns, but at the end of the day, when it comes down to the big vote, why look a gift horse in the mouth? The money is coming to their town, their constituents, from mostly other towns, from mostly other constituents.

Are they too arrogant for the money? Are they ungrateful for the dough? Are they too moralistic to see the gift horse in the first place? Is the rest of the state dragging Minneapolis to keep its reputation as a world-class city? World-class cities in the U.S. have football stadiums, like it or not.

Besides, any other city in Minnesota would love to have a pro football stadium, but 13 legislators from the place in our state in line to receive one must think their city’s economy has enough dollars flowing already.

Pro or con on stadium issues doesn’t matter. Their vote from the view of any resident living in any other Minnesota town says: “Thank you very much, but we have enough free money here in Minneapolis. Go spend it somewhere else.”