7 October 2023
We are to believe that our government’s spending decisions are to be trusted. Well, they are if we might be excused a wink and a nod and a poke to the ribs. For example, we were told that the renovation of the Governor’s Mansion on Summit Avenue would cost $6.3 million.
That figure has jumped just a tad in the last four months, to $12.8 million.
So, more than double the original estimate.
Double.
The state’s Department of Administration, in charge of such things as renovating state mansions, say they have plenty of money to cover higher-than-expected bids for heating, air conditioning, ventilation and electrical and plumbing systems. Oh, and the old boiler and its piping system have to be replaced, too.
We just keep falling off the turnip truck. We pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and pay another bungled bill, whether it’s a food fraud, or a failed cannabis hire, or the bills that will come due after the budget grows by the $18 billion that should have been returned to us turnip farmers in the first place.
We’re either the most gracious, accommodating and understanding people in the country or the dumbest. They missed the renovation budget by $6.5 million. Hey, it can happen to anybody.
No, it can’t. In the real world, if the updated bids came in double the first bid in just four months, we would scrap the project, or at the very least limit the work to what could be accomplished for the amount of the first bid.
Not to mention that the house was built in 1912. When they peeled back the walls, they didn’t find radiant coils and modern wiring. We’re not discussing the National Register of Historic Places here. It’s a nice house with all the aches and pains that should have been expected after 111 years.
It seems somewhat ironic — maybe it’s hypocritical — that Gov. Tim Walz and the DFL majorities in the House and Senate have all preached mightily against the evils of climate change but now want to build the best fossil-fueled house your money can buy. The way those people preach, we’re all going to melt in 10 years. Why a new heating system?
Walz will never come out and apologize for these ridiculous cost overruns. He’s not that kind of guy. It didn’t even occur to him to balk at the $17,000-a-month rental for him to hole up out at Sunfish Lake during the renovation. Somebody whispered in his ear and they ended up sticking him in Eastcliff, the University of Minnesota president’s residence.
There is something these progressive nannies could do. Put our money where your mouths are and build the climate change-proof house of the future. Make a statement. Back up the dystopian vision you have for the rest of us.
Build an apartment. And it must be a rental, not owned. Why, we shouldn’t actually own a house in our communal fight to spread equity. It’s the governor, so live it up. Make it 1,000 square feet, solar powered, but no yard, no driveway, no place to park and certainly no garage. No car, not even electric because they are not affordable.
Now, if the wacked-out progressives really want to make a statement, then knock down the old Irvine mansion entirely and build a big five- or six-unit box the color of wet cement. The governor should be entitled to a front unit so he can look down at treeless Summit Avenue and watch all the bicyclists on the new elevated bike trail.
Joe Soucheray can be reached at [email protected]. Soucheray’s “Garage Logic” podcast can be heard at garagelogic.com.
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