The Minnesota House of Representatives and charitable gaming interests may have come to agreement over the weekend to provide more tax relief for charities – possibly removing a substantial roadblock for the Vikings stadium bill at the Capitol.
A standalone bill on tax relief for charities is scheduled for a hearing in the House Commerce and Regulatory Reform Committee at 6 p.m. on Monday.
In the proposed stadium bill, the state’s $398 million contribution to the nearly $1 billion project comes from tax revenue from authorized electronic versions of pulltab and bingo games.
Under the new bill, charities would receive $36 million in tax relief through a switch from a tax on gross receipts to a tax on the net.
The bill also proposes four additional revenue sources that would kick in, if charitable gambling falls short, to aid the state’s contribution: a tax on Vikings luxury boxes, a sports-themed lottery game, excess revenue from Hennepin County taxes and a Vikings admissions tax.
There are many concerns surrounding the proposed bill: as the Pioneer Press has reported the Vikings are against two of the four additional revenue sources and Minnesota Public Radio reported Gov. Mark Dayton said the sports-themed tipboards, or a form of lottery connected to sports scores, can’t be approved by the state.
At a news conference Monday morning, Dayton said tipboards are illegal and opposed by the NFL, MPR reported.
Dayton also had a problem with not being included in the initial negotiating between legislators and charitable gaming operators, according to MPR.