Mayo request is perfectly logical

Plenty of backlash against the city of Rochester and the Mayo Clinic today for their request for 500 million dollars in public finding to assist in their expansion plans for the city.  But conservatives cannot in good conscience blame the Mayo or the city of Rochester-we should blame ourselves.

After the legislature gave the green light to a Vikings stadium that uses more public dollars than private, why shouldn't the Mayo ask for the same deal?  They would bring in a lot more jobs and tax revenue than the MN Vikings, and they are asking for a 10% contribution for the state, versus the 60-70% stake that we put up for the Vikings stadium.

Don't blame the Mayo clinic-they are pursuing a smart business policy of taking advantage of available tax benefits.  Show me a business in Minnesota that does their taxes and says "that tax break is just too generous, we should stand on principle and not take it".  Then I'll show you a business leader that needs to be fired.

The Mayo request is, of course, incredibly non-conservative and not in the best interests of the state or the taxpayers in the long run.  But the decision that started this mess was the vote by the legislature to buy the Vikings a stadium.  That is where we went wrong, and that is where the blame lies.

Any legislator who voted for the Vikings stadium deal and does not support the Mayo request for public assistance in Rochester is a hypocrite.

Voting yes in the house on the Vikings stadium-

Abeler

Anderson, P.

Anzelc

Atkins

Beard

Benson, J.

Brynaert

Champion

Cornish

Davids

Dill

Dittrich

Doepke

Eken

Fabian

Fritz

Garofalo

Gauthier

Gottwalt

Gunther

Hamilton

Hilstrom

Hoppe

Hortman

Hosch

Howes

Johnson

Kath

Kelly

Kiel

Knuth

Kriesel

Lanning

LeMieur

Lesch

Lillie

Mahoney

Mariani

Marquart

McFarlane

McNamara

Melin

Moran

Morrow

Murdock

Murphy, M.

Murray

Nelson

Nornes

Norton

O'Driscoll

Pelowski

Persell

Poppe

Rukavina

Sanders

Schomacker

Shimanski

Simon

Slawik

Slocum

Smith

Thissen

Tillberry

Torkelson

Urdahl

Vogel

Ward

Westrom

Winkler

Woodard

Voting yes in the senate for the Vikings stadium-

 Bonoff
Carlson
Cohen
Fischbach
Gimse
Goodwin
Harrington
Higgins
Ingebrigtsen
Jungbauer
Kelash
Koch
Koenen
Langseth
Latz
Magnus
Metzen
Michel
Miller
Nelson
Olson
Pederson
Reinert
Rest
Robling
Rosen
Saxhaug
Senjem
Sheran
Sieben
Skoe
Sparks
Stumpf
Tomassoni
Wiger