State senators appear receptive to DECC funding --Duluth News Tribune

Don Davis / State Capitol Bureau, Duluth News Tribune
Published Wednesday, January 31, 2007
ST. PAUL — Senators appear ready to fund a Duluth Entertainment Convention Center expansion this year, whether it is paid for with borrowed money or cash.

“I personally think it is time to get this done,” Senate President James Metzen, DFL-South St. Paul, said Tuesday during a committee hearing.

DECC officials and Sen. Yvonne Prettner Solon, DFL-Duluth, couldn’t agree more.

“We would take whatever the state would give us,” Mayor Herb Bergson said after the hearing.

But, Prettner Solon added, using cash could get construction under way sooner.

Prettner Solon, Bergson, DECC Executive Director Dan Russell and DECC board Chairman Mark Emmel appeared before the Senate Capital Investment Committee, the panel that decides which construction projects to fund.

Committee Chairman Keith Langseth, DFL-Glyndon, said the DECC is important because lawmakers and Gov. Tim Pawlenty promised the expansion would be funded. This is not a year when the Legislature normally funds construction projects.

“Even though this isn’t an emergency, since it fell through the cracks, we feel justified,” Langseth said.

The DECC wants $37.9 million from the state to add an arena to its existing facility. The total estimated $76 million cost is $9 million more than when lawmakers and Pawlenty failed to fund the DECC a year ago.

The city’s portion of the cost would be paid with a 0.75 percentage point increase in the citywide sales tax on food and drink sales. The University of Minnesota Duluth and the DECC itself also would contribute to the construction cost.

Revenue from the tax increase will not be enough to pay for the addition if construction costs rise much more, Russell said.

Duluth’s delegation told senators the expansion would allow the DECC to host more conventions and other events that need more space than now available. Russell said the center already has the 11th-most conventions in the country.

Construction would mean 300 jobs, mostly for area workers, Russell said. Costs would be lower the sooner construction can begin, he added. Work could start as soon as June 18 if funding is approved early enough.

Langseth and Finance Chairman Richard Cohen, DFL-St. Paul, said no decision will be made about how to finance the DECC until March, at the earliest. A House committee also will take up the matter.