{"id":35405,"date":"2013-03-27T02:58:11","date_gmt":"2013-03-27T07:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=35405"},"modified":"2013-03-27T06:50:58","modified_gmt":"2013-03-27T11:50:58","slug":"the-buck-goes-on-forever-the-denial-never-ends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=35405","title":{"rendered":"The Buck Goes On Forever, The Denial Never Ends"},"content":{"rendered":"

2013: Governor Alida Messinger<\/del> Mark Dayton says he’s shocked,\u00a0shocked\u00a0<\/em>to find<\/a> 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:<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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

Cue the harps. \u00a0Let’s flash back to 2013: \u00a0Governor Messinger<\/del> Dayton, after meeting with Roger Goodell<\/a> and his goons, is led by his leash to the forefront to lead a jamdown of a stadium deal<\/a>; 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. \u00a0The Braids inveigled\u00a0\u00a0most of the DFL and a few deeply-misguided Republicans into voting for a plan that some of us warned you at the time<\/a> had no chance whatsoever of succeeding.<\/p>\n

Today? If only Christian Ponder could throw as hard as Dayton passes the buck:<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But is Dayton telling<\/del> mumbling the truth?<\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.”<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The fact is, there’s plenty of blame to go around. \u00a0Most of the DFL, and all too many GOP legislators, were cowed by the NFL and the Helga Braids. \u00a0The 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. \u00a0Most of the DFL were their usual vote-grubbing craven selves.<\/p>\n

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. \u00a0Whoever that is. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a0Strib<\/em>, at least temporarily; the money the\u00a0Strib\u00a0<\/em>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. \u00a0The\u00a0Strib\u00a0<\/em>served as Roger Goodell’s PR agent just as surely as Governor Messinger<\/del> Dayton served as his lobbyist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2013: Governor Alida Messinger Mark Dayton says he’s shocked,\u00a0shocked\u00a0to 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-democrats"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35405"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35421,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35405\/revisions\/35421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}