@(#&%! democracy

As expected, the House passed the Twins stadium bill. Democracy died this afternoon when a vote failed 64-66 to allow the residents of Hennepin County to vote on the tax that will be imposed upon us. The bill itself passed 76-55.

Although I am incredibly angry about this vote, I applaud Rep. Ann Lenczewski of Bloomington for pushing hard for the referendum vote. I also applaud other legislators who voted for democracy even though they don't live in Hennepin County and thus don't have a dog in this fight: Phil Krinkie, Mary Liz Holberg, Karen Klinzing, and several others. At least they see the problem when the state as a whole votes to impose a tax on only one locality for a statewide project. Why don't we put a sales tax on Steve Sviggum's home county to pay for the planetarium in Minneapolis?

This is not yet a done deal, though. It has to be passed by the senate, and Larry Pogemiller says that he has an issue with the current funding plan. Pogey hasn't said what his alternative will be, but we'll all be waiting to hear it.

I'm also pretty tired of all those people who think that this means that the legislature has finally "done something" about the Twins after doing nothing for so long. I'm sorry, but to me, telling Carl Pohlad to drop his $2.8 billion on a new stadium by himself seems to be a pretty good solution. That's doing something in my book; too bad the lobbyists finally won against the wishes of the citizens of this state.