With the entire state watching to see whether Rep. Morrie Lanning can pass a bill to fund a stadium for the Minnesota Vikings, one would assume he has little room on his legislative agenda for other matters.

Moderate legislators are hard to come by these days. By most accounts, last fall’s election saw voters oust most of the middle-of-the-road DFLers in the Minnesota House and replace them with a spate of freshman Republicans elected on a strong right-wing wave that swept the nation.

Several high-profile Republican pet projects have faded amid a particularly contentious budget battle, including a repeal of the nuclear construction moratorium, pension reforms, corporate income tax cuts and slots at racetracks.

With just days left before the adjournment of the 2011 regular session, eight Chamber of Commerce leaders from greater Minnesota came to the Capitol Monday to blast the Republican Legislature’s budget proposals.

On Tuesday afternoon the Minnesota Vikings staged a triumphal press conference to announce that the football team has reached a deal with Ramsey County to build a new $1 billion stadium on the site of a former munitions plant in Arden Hills.

The GOP State Government and Veterans Committee Chairs - Sen. Mike Parry and Rep. Morrie Lanning - had a closed-door meeting with Gov. Mark Dayton Monday afternoon after tensions escalated over the division's budget bills late last week. The meeting was short and unfriendly, Parry said afterward. "Today I saw a very angry governor."

Tempers are starting to flare in budget conference committees with just two weeks remaining in the legislative session. In today's hearing on the state government and military affairs finance bill, Sen. Mike Parry bristled at the testimony of Minnesota Management and Budget Commissioner James Schowalter.

The long-awaited Minnesota Vikings stadium bill has formally landed in the bill queue at the Capitol.

The debate over how to fund a new stadium for the Minnesota Vikings has always divided legislative caucuses on both sides of the aisle. Last year DFLers from Minneapolis pushed back on a proposal that suggested extending local taxes from the Convention Center to help pay for the project, even as Democrats like former Senate Taxes Chairman Tom Bakk led the charge for the team's new home.

Dogged by allegations of politically motivated cuts - and beset by criticisms and questions about some of its funding mechanisms - the House State Government Finance bill has become a controversial and complex affair.