Skip to main content Skip to office menu Skip to footer
Capital IconMinnesota Legislature

Legislative News and Views - Rep. Tom Hackbarth (R)

Back to profile

Hackbarth: New Senate building unnecessary, wasteful

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

 

ST. PAUL – The sale of $85 million in state bonds was completed Tuesday, bringing closer the groundbreaking for a controversial Senate office complex near the Capitol in St. Paul.

 

The Senate complex and adjacent parking ramp are estimated to cost $90 million, with taxpayers paying around $77 million of that price tag. Senators will be displaced from the Capitol during a massive $272 million restoration of that century-old building.

 

Rep. Tom Hackbarth, R-Cedar, said other, more cost-effective alternatives were available. He and fellow House Republicans unanimously voted against the 2013 Tax Bill, which Democrats used to house the initial seed money for the Senate building.

 

“This is a huge price to pay for what really is a short-term inconvenience and it really does not even address the issue,” Hackbarth said. “How long is it going to take to build this Senate complex? By the time that project is complete, the Senate could just as well have moved back into the Capitol. This does nothing to solve any immediate disruptions.”

 

Hackbarth said there is plenty of vacant office space in St. Paul that could have housed Senate members until 2017, when the Capitol restoration is scheduled to be completed and they could have returned to that building.

 

“We don’t need another office building in St. Paul,” Hackbarth said. “It is unnecessary and the people I talk with in our area overwhelmingly oppose it and see it as just more wasteful spending by government. Nobody is telling me this is a great idea to spend taxpayer money on a new complex for the Senate.”

 

The salt in the wound, Hackbarth said, is that blueprints for the building include offices for 67 Senators and staff, but a number of Senators likely will end up in the Capitol in 2017 anyway, making parts of a building that has not even been constructed obsolete.

 

“Democrats passed a $2 billion tax increase and still have the gall to build themselves new offices,” Hackbarth said. “That really sends a bad message to Minnesotans who are still trying to recover from the recession.”  

 

-30-

 

Recent News for Rep. Tom Hackbarth