The DFL is trying to push through a new Senate office building, to house 44 Sentors and their staffs, for a price of around $90 Million.
That amounts to $2,045,454.55 per Senator.
Two million and change, to house a part-time employee.
For $2,045,454.55 per part-time employee, the state could afford:
- A Winnebago Voyage ($150,000) for touring their district in style, and avoiding those pesky DUIs while in the Cities.
- A Beechcraft Bonanza ($690,000) capable of getting them to and from their district, anywhere in Minnesota, quickly and in modest style.
- Office space in downtown Saint Paul – whose vacancy rate is around 20% even with massive numbers of state offices – for bargain-basement prices. For the portion of the $2million left after buying the Winnebago and the airplane, each senator could rent 500 square feet of Saint Paul office space for 48 years (in the First Bank building, the one with the big red “1” on the roof), 114 years (in the Degree of Honor building, a nice building not far from the Capitol), or 212 years (in the Empire building, a classic turn of the century building way downtown). Or, alternately, rent 500 square feet of space for the year, and the Winnebago mobile office, and the Beechcraft, and leave a little over a million dollars left over that the state can…um, not spend.
Or, y’know, just rent some cheap space and give the rest of the money back to the taxpayer.
The Sears store on Rice Street is 187,000 square feet surrounded by 15 acres of parking lot. Condemn it. Give each of the 44 Senators a 25×25 office with 25×25 for staff offices and conference conference rooms, so 1,250 x 44 = 55,000 sq ft. Convert the remaining 137,000 square feet into dormitory and cafeteria and eliminate per diems.
But, Joe Doakes! With sub-standard offices and housing government service won’t attract high quality candidates!
To say nothing of the lack of graft opportunities.
How about an addition to the Saint’s stadium? The land is paid for and the little pig they use to return balls might feel comfortable around the pork. But only after the removal of the horse leavings the grounds are covered with. Those doing the removal could become understandably confused and the state would be without a senate …
Amusing term I heard on the other morning talk show this morning. State Legislative Office Building: SLOB.
Kurt Zellers quipped that they also call it the Bakk Legislative Office Building: BLOB
They said that the DFL is whining that it would cost $2.9million per year to rent the necessary space. This would pay for 30 years of rentals, and there’s way more than enough available office space in downtown St Paul from the businesses who either went out of business or moved to greener pastures.
Oh, and Mitch, might I suggest this over the Beechcraft Bonanza:
http://cirrusaircraft.com/sr22/
Keeps the money in the state of MN as well.