"Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak's plan to finance a proposed Minnesota Vikings stadium would raise game day downtown parking meter rates to $25. It would add a tax on football tickets and extend existing restaurant and hotel taxes decades past their sunset date.

One thing the package would not do, according to a recent financial analysis, is cover the $300 million the city has committed to the stadium project. The plan comes up $55 million short.

"It's this financing plan that is a really rotten deal for taxpayers," said Minneapolis City Council member Gary Schiff, who is leading the charge to kill Rybak's financing proposal. "We (will) have gobbled up every sales tax we have, sold bonds, paid the interest, and there is still not enough money in this plan."

Minneapolis and supporters of a competing plan in Arden Hills are scrambling to raise a local portion of the money needed to build a new home for the Vikings. Ramsey County leaders are expected to present a new financing plan today to revive their proposal.

Minneapolis officials are trying to rally support for theirs.

The city's $300 million stadium contribution would exceed $600 million by the time the bonds are paid off in 30 years. And the $55 million funding gap would grow into a $107 million shortfall by the year 2045, the analysis says. "