GOP Gov candidates bash building
The five Republicans competing to be the party's candidate for governor appeared at a joint news conference today to condemn DFL Gov. Mark Dayton and Democratic legislative leaders for approving a plan that includes a new office building for the Minnesota Senate and an adjacent parking ramp. The total cost of the project would be $90 million.
The candidates criticized the proposal as “luxurious,” “plush and decadent,” “palatial,” a “DFL monument” and “opulent.”
The news conference was organized by the Minnesota Republican Party.
State Rep. Kurt Zellers, R-Maple Grove, called the building luxurious and said it wasn’t needed.
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"I challenge Gov. Dayton and the Democrats, if you want this, pay for it,” Zellers said. “Pass a bill this legislative session that pays for this building.”
The current plan relies on a rent to own financing plan that needs approval only from the House Rules Committee. The measure was included in a tax bill last session that Dayton signed into law. Since then, Republicans have been taking every opportunity to criticize the building as an example of out of control spending by Democrats.
“We have a proposal for a $90 million building to house senators; and the governor, in an over $1 billion bonding proposal, has $69 million for roads and bridges,” said state Sen. Dave Thompson, R-Lakeville. “If people in their households prioritized that way, they would have a closet full of clothing and no food in the refrigerator.”
The office building is part of a larger renovation of the state Capitol. The two are linked because every senator who currently has offices in the Capitol is scheduled to move into the new building. The plan is for about 44 senators, staffers and others to move from the Capitol once the renovation is complete.
Some Republicans say they’re astonished that Democrats are proposing a building that doesn't provide space for every senator.
“They are building a $90 million Taj Mahal that doesn’t even house all 67 of the Senators,” Hennepin County Commissioner Jeff Johnson said. “I would find that to be a little bit embarrassing.”
DFL leaders say the new building would include public accommodations like larger committee rooms. They also say a building that includes offices for all 67 senators would cost even more.
But Republican critics say Democrats should be looking at current government offices or empty office space in St. Paul as an alternative.
“We’ve gotten to 2014 without that additional building,” said Scott Honour of Orono. “We need less government, not more.”
Republican Marty Seifert, a former state lawmaker from Marshall, said Dayton should work to stop the construction of the building by refusing to allow state borrowing for it.
“If this goes through bonding, the governor can refuse to let bonds on projects he believes bonds can be refused to be let on,” Seifert said. “It’s not a done deal.”
The DFL-controlled Senate Rules Committee has already authorized the plan. The House Rules Committee has not taken a vote.
House Democrats have also raised objections about the cost of the building and the lack of office space for every member of the Senate.
House Majority Leader Erin Murphy, DFL- St. Paul, said members of the House Rules Committee are still waiting for the Department of Administration to give them more information about the cost of the building and whether there are any alternatives available. But Murphy said she has concerns with suggestions about moving senate offices outside of the Capitol complex.
“I’ve heard many Republicans talking about placing senators in all sorts of places,” Murphy said. “When I think about that and the absurdity for the public in trying to locate their senators when they’re here at the Capitol and share their perspectives with them. I do think that’s an empty argument.”
For his part, Dayton has asked officials in the Department of Administration to look at ways to lower the cost of the project. He called the current design lavish. A spokesman for Dayton said the governor and his staff are scheduled to move out of the Capitol in June when renovation on the west end of the building begins. He also said the governor is not likely to return to his Capitol offices until at least 2016.
Dayton’s spokesman also defended the process.
“The choices we make together during this once-in-a-generation restoration project should be focused on the public’s long-term interests, providing the space future Minnesotans, Legislatures, and governors will need to lead and govern our state for the next 100 years,” said Dayton spokesman Matt Swenson.
“Rather than scoring political points for the next election, or making headlines in tomorrow’s newspaper, decisions made around the restoration of the state Capitol and the surrounding complex should be focused on Minnesota’s future,” he said.
Murphy did not give a timetable for when the House Rules Committee will meet again to discuss the project.