April 19, 2006
What price gnats?
Minneapolis Star-Tribune readers doubtless choked on their cereal this morning to see that columnist Doug Grow, long one of the the paper's most prominent public-stadium-funds critics, had, as he put it "switched to the dark side" and come out in support of the Minnesota Twins' stadium proposal. Not that Grow sounded at all happy about it, delivering what has to be the weakest-ass pro-stadium argument in the history of journalism:
Why my change of heart?I do still care about school kids.And I don't even mind watching baseball in the Dome. Hey, most days, it's more comfortable inside than outside.Still, I understand some people want to mix sunshine, a full moon, flurries or gnats with the game.Go for it.
As if aware that $373 million sounds like an awful lot of tax money to spend on the joys of bugs, Grow goes on to hope that "perhaps construction of a stadium will serve to re-energize Minneapolis" and "maybe it will help get Minnesota out of its 'just say no' slump" and "start to get back in the game again." But even he didn't sound convinced, turning over much of his column to longtime stadium-funding opponent Rev. Ricky Rask to chide him for his malfeasance. The Minneapolis City Pages speculates that Grow "finally wore out" in the face of the endless Twins stadium debates - which, unless you think Carl Pohlad has incriminating photos of Grow with a crappie, is as good an explanation as any.
(As an aside, Grow also notes that Rask - who figured prominently in Chapter 6 of Field of Schemes for her activism against a previous generation of Twins stadium subsidy demands - is recovering from surgery to remove a brain tumor. If anyone reading this is in touch with her, please send her my best wishes.)
Speaking of the City Pages, it notes that the big test for the Twins stadium plan could come tomorrow night, when the Minnesota house tax committee takes up the bill after two days of public testimony. Committee chair Phil Krinkie tells the paper that he plans to introduce amendments requiring a voter referendum and repealing the team's proposed construction sales-tax exemption - a subsidy I hadn't even heard the Twins were applying for, though it's certainly been used elsewhere - while fellow committee member Ann Lenczewski has "about 40 amendments" she has ready to submit. Krinkie also notes that "human nature being what it is, there is a chance it might pass because 86 counties are able to skate on this without paying the cost," but it sounds like he and other stadium-tax opponents aren't going to go down without a fight - at least, not unless someone finds them in a compromising position with a fish.
