To: \u00a0Governor Dayton
\nFrom: Mitch Berg, Uppity Peasant
\nRe: \u00a0 Remember all those pieces of paper you signed last spring?<\/p>\n
Governor Dayton:<\/p>\n
Yesterday, you told MPR News in re the new $90 million Senate Palace that Tom Bakk rammed through at the literal last possible moment of the last session…:<\/p>\n
“I think the building itself is necessary … We’re talking about a project for the next century,” Dayton told reporters Wednesday. “But I think the price tag on it, and appearance of it, are a little high.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Er, Governor Dayton? \u00a0You signed the appropriation into law<\/em>.<\/p>\n
Or at least we presume it was you, and not Carrie Lucking moving your hands.<\/p>\n
That presumption looks weaker and weaker these days.<\/p>\n
Dayton said he wants a more modest, less expensive version and planned to share his concerns soon with Senate leaders…<\/span>The new building is needed to make up for the square footage lawmakers will lose once the renovation of the Capitol is complete, Bakk added. Under present Senate arrangements, the majority party is housed in the Capitol while the minority is housed in the State Office Building. Bringing Democrats and Republicans together under one roof is important, Bakk said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Here’s a solution. \u00a0Mere blocks from the Capitol lies downtown Saint Paul. \u00a0It’s got a 30% vacancy rate – and I suspect that’s even higher in the gulch between Cedar and Jackson streets, where there is virtually nothing living (thanks, largely, to DFL policies).<\/p>\n
Why not move the Senate into the old USBank building? \u00a0Or 375 Jackson? \u00a0The Hamm? \u00a0 Alliance? \u00a0The Big Red One?<\/p>\n
Or maybe Macy’s? \u00a0 That’d seem…appropriate.<\/p>\n
PS to Governor Dayton: \u00a0Nancy Pelosi was being just a little bit flippant, I think, when she said “you have to pass it to see what’s in it”. \u00a0It technically is <\/em>your job to know what you’re signing into law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
To: \u00a0Governor Dayton From: Mitch Berg, Uppity Peasant Re: \u00a0 Remember all those pieces of paper you signed last spring? Governor Dayton: Yesterday, you told MPR News in re the new $90 million Senate Palace that Tom Bakk rammed through at the literal last possible moment of the last session…: “I think the building itself […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[144],"tags":[249],"class_list":["post-40488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-governor","tag-open-letters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40488"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47529,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40488\/revisions\/47529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}