Article: Capitol cookout: A chance to listen or `marketing tool'? The Mall of America, trade unions and contractors are throwing a public picnic today outside the Capitol, where their pitch for tax breaks for mall expansion has received a lukewarm response.(NEWS)

Byline: Pat Doyle; Staff Writer

As their bid for a tax subsidy struggles in the final weeks of the legislative session, the Mall of America, labor unions and contractors plan to throw a public picnic today - on the mall of the Capitol.

They're dishing up free if humble fare - brats, potato salad and chips - but to one legislator it smacks of the kind of wining and dining of lawmakers the state's gift ban generally forbids. "I never heard of a group lobbying for a public subsidy to have a picnic on the lawn," said Rep. Ann Lenczewski, DFL-Bloomington, co-chair of the tax conference committee, which is empowered to act on the tax proposal. She was among ...

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