Now the Taxpayers League of Minnesota is piling on over the state's Vikings stadium financing plan, too.
Phil Krinkie, Taxpayers League president, has joined the chorus of critics decrying the use of electronic pulltabs to pay the state's portion of the stadium financing, a plan which so far has come up woefully short.
In a statement, Krinkie says:
Despite the fact that estimates for revenue have fallen woefully short of expectations, no one at the State Capitol seems the least bit concerned. In the last three months, State lawmakers have proposed to increase state spending by over three billion dollars fueled by more than two billion dollars in new taxes. But no one has stepped forward to suggest how the Legislature is going to pay for last year’s E-normous expenditure to build a new stadium.
And:
Everyone with an IQ above room temperature knew last year this sham of a funding source would never produce the revenue needed to pay for Zygi’s billion dollar playground. That’s why the funding legislation contained a provision termed “Appropriation Bonds.” These are bonds that will have the backing of the State’s general tax revenue, i.e. the state’s income and sales tax revenue. Therefore, when the E-pull tab revenue comes up short, as is currently the case, the money needed to pay off the bonds will come from the State’s General Fund.
No overdraft notice, no shortage of funds for the billionaire’s Taj Mahal stadium, just another I.O.U. to the state taxpayers. Whether duped or dumb, the funding source that legislators promised they wouldn’t use to build a new stadium, General Fund dollars, is indeed the ultimate source of the funding.
Krinkie says legislators should craft a new stadium bill, one that includes more of a contribution from Vikings owner Zygi Wilf:
Just because legislators dreamed that E-pull tabs would fund the project doesn’t make it a reality. Before lawmakers spend billions more this Legislative Session, they should first determine how they will fund their past obligations.