Vikings Stadium Critics Not Going Quietly

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — They can’t stop the Minnesota Vikings stadium from being built, but critics of the funding plan aren’t sitting quietly as construction begins.

Away from Tuesday’s groundbreaking festivities, a collection of conservative groups and lawmakers held a counter-event to keep the focus on the stadium’s heavy public subsidy. They describe the financing as shaky and say taxpayers got a raw deal.

Public funds will foot roughly half of the $1 billion price tag. An initial plan to get a big chunk of that through new electronic gambling failed. So lawmakers plugged the gap in a stadium account with a one-time diversion of tobacco taxes and going forward with a corporate tax.

Criticism was directed at Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton, but Republicans controlled the Legislature when the stadium was authorized in 2012.

(? Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)