The Buck Goes On Forever, The Denial Never Ends

2013: Governor Alida Messinger Mark Dayton says he’s shocked, shocked to find that projections regarding the gambling revenue that were a vital part of the state’s “contribution” toward the new Vikings jamdown stadium were developed with input from the gaming industry:

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton says he wasn’t aware that projections of how much revenue new forms of charitable gaming would generate for the Vikings stadium were developed with input from the gambling industry.

But the head of the state gambling control board said the consultations with businesses — which were needed to create a new model from scratch — were repeatedly discussed in public.

And a former lawmaker who pushed the charitable gaming legislation in the state House said he thinks the governor is trying to distance himself from projections that now look wildly optimistic.

“People are just looking for places to point blame, that’s all,” said John Kriesel, a Republican former state representative from Cottage Grove.

Cue the harps.  Let’s flash back to 2013:  Governor Messinger Dayton, after meeting with Roger Goodell and his goons, is led by his leash to the forefront to lead a jamdown of a stadium deal; at the head of a NFL-paid campaign that convinced Helga Braid Nation – the lowest-information voters in a state full of union bobbleheads – that the Vikings were on the very verge of moving from one of the NFL’s strongest market.  The Braids inveigled  most of the DFL and a few deeply-misguided Republicans into voting for a plan that some of us warned you at the time had no chance whatsoever of succeeding.

Today? If only Christian Ponder could throw as hard as Dayton passes the buck:

“I think it should have been disclosed,” Dayton told the Associated Press. “I think obviously in hindsight, given the serious overestimation that occurred, that those sources should have been disclosed very publicly in the very beginning and people could have exercised the caution that probably was due given those sources.”

But is Dayton telling mumbling the truth?

Tom Barrett, head of the gambling control board, said it always was clear that gambling firms were being consulted on the new devices, costs and other issues relevant to building a revenue projection.

A presentation from the gambling control board to the Senate Taxes Committee in December 2011, for example, states the board plans to gather “input from industry representatives.”

“The input was helpful, but they didn’t drive (the process),” Barrett said of the gambling firms. “They were asked, ‘Do you see any problems with the methodology?’ And in defense of what was before the board and how we approached it, I still stand behind the methodology.”

The fact is, there’s plenty of blame to go around.  Most of the DFL, and all too many GOP legislators, were cowed by the NFL and the Helga Braids.  The GOP – which then held the majority in the Legislature – allowed Idiot Stadium to become the most important issue in a session that should have been about reforming government.  Most of the DFL were their usual vote-grubbing craven selves.

But the buck – especially the buck that involves the actions of an executive branch that pushed in its own passive aggressive style for this jamdown – stops with the Governor.  Whoever that is.    

It’s abetted, of course, by a Twin Cities media that was even more in the bag than usual; sports is big money for most of the media, and potentially salvation for the Strib, at least temporarily; the money the Strib would earn selling the land needed for the stadium development drove the arm-twisting that led the stadium from Arden Hills back downtown, and it drove and drives the paper’s entire coverage of this sorry debacle.  The Strib served as Roger Goodell’s PR agent just as surely as Governor Messinger Dayton served as his lobbyist.

7 thoughts on “The Buck Goes On Forever, The Denial Never Ends

  1. I’m outraged to learn the government consulted industry when drafting legislation. Government is SMARTER than industry, that’s why government knows how much businesses can afford to pay for wages, what insurance benefits they can afford to offer, how much parking they’ll need and why shutting off access to customers for two years will have no impact on profits.

    If Governor Dayton had known the charitable gambling industry had been consulted, he NEVER would have agreed to this deal. He would have told the Vikings “Don’t let the screen door hit you . . ..” We know that for certain, because he said so repeatedly throughout the session. He ALWAYS opposed the stadium deal, Winston, he was TRICKED into signing it.

    One consolation, at least it wasn’t a Conservative think-tank or civil rights organization. Imagine if ALEC or NRA had been asked for information.
    .

  2. The whole point of last May’s charade wasn’t to provide a sound funding mechanism for the stadium. Rather, it was to get to a point in the process where the politicians could tell us that it is too late to turn back. Only after that point of no return is reached and has been passed would we really get down to making the hard and painful choices about how the stadium is actually to be paid for.

    Members of both parties wanted the stadium. One problem was that the process rushed, something that was used as cover by a lot of legislators involved. Time, in the sense of taking hard and careful look at stadium proposals, has never been on the side of stadium supporters. No stadium supporter ever, in the history of stadiums, I think going back to Roman times, as ever won the economic argument about stadiums. It’s now becoming clear that the e pulltab financing component could never hold up to any kind of scrutiny. All this goes toward explaining why tactically, the decision to build a stadium had to be rushed, and that was the strategic choice stadium supporter made to get their bills passed.

  3. If the people of Cottage Grove are looking for someone to blame, they don’t have to look very far. Kriesel was crucial to the passage of this turd.

    Also, The whole point of last May’s Barry Sotero’s charade wasn’t to provide a sound funding mechanism for the stadium. Rather, it was to get to a point in the process where the politicians could tell us that it is too late to turn back. Only after that point of no return is reached and has been passed would we really get down to making the hard and painful choices about how the stadium is actually to be paid for government can take custody of the American health care system.

    It’s amazing how close some people can live to clarity, and yet never quite get it.

  4. “Also, The whole point of Barry Sotero’s charade wasn’t to provide a sound funding mechanism for health care.”

    Wish these comments had an edit feature.

  5. Members of both parties wanted the stadium. One problem was that the process rushed, something that was used as cover by a lot of legislators involved. Time, in the sense of taking hard and careful look at stadium proposals, has never been on the side of stadium supporters. No stadium supporter ever, in the history of stadiums, I think going back to Roman times, as ever won the economic argument about stadiums. It’s now becoming clear that the e pulltab financing component could never hold up to any kind of scrutiny. All this goes toward explaining why tactically, the decision to build a stadium had to be rushed, and that was the strategic choice stadium supporter made to get their bills passed.

    Sometimes, it takes 122 words to render what could be more economically expressed as “they were lying, every single one of them.”

  6. Let’s build “The People’s Cottage,” a huge billion dollar vacation complex on one of the states most picturesque lakes – a vacation paradise where Minnesotans can go – for free – for some much needed R&R.

    Funding mechanism? – e-Fairy Dust.

    Who needs money when you have game designers who can imagine ways in which people can piss away money – and then proclaim what they’ve created a “revenue stream.” Who do they think they are, the IRS?

  7. Kind of related (Democrats and financial issues)….I see the lefties who own Pizza Luci are complaining about the proposed increase in minimum wage. Surely the owners and employees of one of Minnesota’s most progressive companies aren’t against living wages.

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