In a troubling move for a new Minnesota Vikings stadium, Gov. Mark Dayton announced Tuesday that there was not enough legislative support to exempt either Ramsey County or Minneapolis from having a referendum to increase local sales taxes for the project according to Mark Kaszuba of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Dayton said he and Republican legislative leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch and House Speaker Kurt Zellers, came to the conclusion following a meeting last Friday. Without a legislative exemption, the governor said in a statement, the earliest a referendum could be held in either Ramsey County or Minneapolis would be November 2012. The announcement could effectively derail a plan to have Ramsey County contribute $350 million to a new $1.1 billion stadium in Arden Hills through a countywide sales tax increase. Stadium proponents have argued that without a legislative exemption – like the Minnesota Twins had in Hennepin County in building Target Field in downtown Minneapolis – the Vikings stadium project would likely be scuttled by voters. Source: The Redzone
