Letter: DFL to blame for stalled stadium bill

• Rep. Rod Hamilton

Rep. Rod Hamilton R-Mountain Lake

Talk about it

By a 9-6 vote on Monday, the Minnesota House Government Operations and Elections Committee refused to support a bill that would help create a new stadium for the Minnesota Vikings.

I don’t serve on the committee, and therefore did not have a vote on the issue, but I’m disappointed with the lack of DFL support.

Much like the Twins ballpark legislation, both sides understand that stadium bills are going to need strong bipartisan support. Monday night’s vote wasn’t even to support new stadium construction; it was a vote to move it to the next committee without recommendation. Republicans put up five out of nine votes, and the DFL only managed one yes vote out of its six members on the committee, two of which live in Minneapolis.

I wonder if political games aren’t at play with the lack of DFL support found in this vote.

Governor Dayton has called the Vikings stadium legislation the biggest jobs bill of the session. Yet only one member of the Democrat-Farm-Labor party recognized the significant number of union jobs that would have been created with this proposal and supported it?

All I want is the opportunity to take a vote on this issue on the House floor. Yet, only one Democrat thought the bill was important enough to send on to another committee. Republicans put up more than half the votes needed to move it along. With their inaction, the Democrats effectively killed the Vikings stadium bill.

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