I left the comment below over at mnpACT!, where Dave Mindeman dropped a flag on Rep. Tom Emmer's "I don't know why someone hasn't floated taking some of that arts and entertainment tax and putting it toward the Vikings stadium."
Um, you just did, although in a way that allows you to step out of bounds and deny it was your idea if someone tries to tackle you. This maneuver shows Emmer is clearly GOP governor material.
Another commenter noted that Legacy amendment, stuck in the state constitution by voters in 2008, says what the arts money is to be spent on "arts, arts education, arts access, and to preserve Minnesota’s history and cultural heritage."
Emmer is in the legislature, and he may not be the only one there who equates "arts" with "entertainment." Still, despite all the drama over the years, it's not going to be too difficult to cut the Vikings out of the arts definition.
"Cultural heritage," following "history" as it does, seems to mean Native Americans, German Turners, Slovak miners, Irish entrepreneurs, Norwegian ministers and Rondo dwellers, among others. But what about General Mills, Polaris snowmobiles and a sports franchise "meant to reflect Minnesota's place as a center of Scandinavian American culture" that has been around longer than most Minnesotans have been alive?
We can thank Rep. Emmer for illustrating so soon the folly of trying to work around legislative gutlessness by putting more bricks in the state constitution.
