Now it’s up to a six-member conference committee, hastily chosen Tuesday, to put together a compromise Vikings stadium bill that can pass both houses.
All six are supporters of a stadium bill.
The House conferees are GOP Reps. Morrie Lanning of Moorhead, the stadium bill sponsor, and Joe Hoppe of Chaska and DFL Rep. Terry Morrow of St. Peter. The Senate conferees are GOP Sens. Julie Rosen of Fairmont and Bill Ingebrigtsen of Alexandria and DFL Sen. Roger Reinert of Duluth.
“Good conferees,” Rosen, who sponsored the Senate proposal, dubbed the group after the bill passed late Tuesday night.
“It’s doable,” she said of coming together. “There are some issues with the bill, but we’ll try to iron them out.”
After months of protracted committee hearings and hours of debate in the waning days of this legislative session, the $975 million Vikings stadium proposal finally cleared both the House and the Senate by Tuesday. But it still faces hurdles.
In one of the biggest changes, both houses voted to increase the Vikings’ contribution to the project: the House chose $105 million, and the Senate settled on $25 million.
Right now, the House would require the Vikings to pay $532 million and the state to pitch in $293 million. The Senate proposed a more modest $452 million contribution from the team and a $373 million state share.
The Minneapolis contribution would still be $150 million. Before the changes, the state’s share was $398 million, and the Viking’s were expected to provide $427 million.
Policy provisions, such as the Senate eliminating a proposed monopoly for a team-owned soccer franchise for the first five years of the stadium and an anti-blackout broadcast policy, also ensure that the conferees have their work cut out for them.
So far, the committee hasn’t convened. The House is scheduled to be in session at 1 p.m.
“The pressure is just from the timeline,” Rosen said.