I'm sure this has potential to get me flamed, but I admit that I agreed with the spirit of the lawsuit in spite of my desires to see a new play pen for the Vikings. I felt the legal issues were of valid concern. The suit contended that the legislature essentially violated the referendum law by not having a referendum in MPLS. (Because it probably would not have passed.)
It is a bad precedent if the Legislature can disregard the rules or just come up with loopholes to circumvent said rules. (which is what happened here.) Given the typical voting habits of MPLS things could get ugly quite quickly...
Winning is not a sometime thing it is an all of the time thing - Vince Lombardi
"The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it." ~Thucydides
Just so you know, he's now trying to see if he can find a way to take it to federal court. Not entirely sure what that'll do (and frankly, he'll probably spend more time in court than it will take to build the stadium). Oh well. Here's his cry for help on the subject (P.S. he also listed his phone number...not saying, I'm just saying).
"The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it." ~Thucydides
[quote="mansquatch"]I'm sure this has potential to get me flamed, but I admit that I agreed with the spirit of the lawsuit in spite of my desires to see a new play pen for the Vikings. I felt the legal issues were of valid concern. The suit contended that the legislature essentially violated the referendum law by not having a referendum in MPLS. (Because it probably would not have passed.)
It is a bad precedent if the Legislature can disregard the rules or just come up with loopholes to circumvent said rules. (which is what happened here.) Given the typical voting habits of MPLS things could get ugly quite quickly...[/quote]
I was against the new lawsuit for reasons stated above. But your post here is well reasoned. There was a lot not to like about the stadium deal, this element and the pull-tabs funding mechanism at the state level come to mind. The Goodell steamroller did its job in providing corporate welfare to the Wilf's who will soon own a billion dollar team if they don't already, at taxpayer expense.
CalVike wrote:
I was against the new lawsuit for reasons stated above. But your post here is well reasoned. There was a lot not to like about the stadium deal, this element and the pull-tabs funding mechanism at the state level come to mind. The Goodell steamroller did its job in providing corporate welfare to the Wilf's who will soon own a billion dollar team if they don't already, at taxpayer expense.
There was a reason why the bill was approved by state courts. If it's legal, it's legal. The pull tabs were the initial funding source, but they built-in extra income sources (I believe one was tobacco taxes) to make sure that there wouldn't be any money that was pulled from the general fund. Don't worry, when it's all said and done, it'll work out well for the Wilfs AND the state of Minnesota.
"The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it." ~Thucydides