Dear Neighbor,
Citizens deserve to know the truth when it comes to how the state is spending their tax dollars. The problem is Democrats in St. Paul have rewritten the rules, shut down due process and skirted transparency in order to raise taxes and waste more of our money.
People are shocked when I explain the facts of behind-the-scenes deals Democrats are making to spend our tax dollars without proper transparency. They always ask, “Why hasn't this information been told to the public?”
Nowhere is this truer than with two seriously flawed major projects that are in the process of getting started: A nearly $1 billion Vikings stadium and a nearly $100 million Senate office building/parking ramp across the street from the Capitol.
Taxpayer commitments to both projects were slipped into a tax bill late in the 2013 session, without a single public hearing in the House and after we had our full floor discussion on the bill. Instead of undergoing months of vetting, Democrats skipped the usual process and placed these tax-and-spend provisions near the finish line in the final hours last session. Much of the scheming was done behind closed doors, limiting the ability for legislators and the public to offer comments, opinions and alternatives.
The right thing to do would have been for the House Capital Investment Committee to consider funding for the new Senate office building during public hearings. The problem for Democrats was it unlikely would have passed in a bonding bill, which requires a super-majority. So they pulled shenanigans, using the tax bill as a path for spending commitments, requiring a simple majority vote that Democrats could provide on their own. A Star Tribune article from today paints a similar picture in the Senate: http://www.startribune.com/politics/statelocal/240120631.html
These late-session maneuvers meant the public never heard the details of how or why their tax dollars will be spent on a new castle for the Senate. Most people also did not know plans for the elaborate building have included wasteful amenities such as a reflecting pool and a fitness center. What does it say when even some Democrats have expressed fear of “overbuilding” with this project?
It also took until long after this project passed in the tax bill for many to learn the new building will only house a portion of the Senate; 44 offices will be in the new building, meaning 23 Senators will remain housed in the Capitol. That is senseless.
Also, this poorly planned Senate building project also is going to cost taxpayers more in the long run because of the short-sighted leasing plan Democrats passed.
As for the Vikings stadium, its financing has been on thin ice since electronic pull-tabs started coming embarrassingly short of living up to the revenue projections we were pitched in 2011. I said the estimates were unrealistic from Day 1, especially since there were no other states with a proven track record to provide us with solid success figures.
I was among legislators who spent much of the last session harping on Democrats to bring forward a solution to this problem so we could put it in front of committees and conduct a thorough discussion.
They ultimately took the easy way out, adding a one-time tax on tobacco inventory and raising corporate taxes to their bill that added taxes and fees on hardworking Minnesotans by around $2.5 billion. Again, they inserted these provisions into their enormous tax bill at the end of last session – after the bill’s full debate in the House. They kept their plans out of sight until it was too late to put up for public scrutiny.
Now, a lawsuit has been filed that challenges the constitutionality of the stadium funding. The sale of $468 million of stadium bonds suddenly was halted and now there is the potential for a delay in construction and/or a ripple effect that could impact the entire project.
Wasteful government spending is bad enough, but the Democrats’ lack of transparency just adds insult. Minnesotans deserve better.
Sincerely,
Tom