ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - A House committee on Friday approved a planned Senate office building that would cost some $13 million less than an earlier design, despite Republican complaints of improper process.
The tweaked design shaves the cost from the original $90 million estimate by delaying one parking lot, making another user-financed and halving the number of conference rooms. It also would house all 67 senators, up from 44 in the earlier design.
The House Rules Committee advanced the project after 3½ hours of contentious debate. Democrats control the House and hold a majority on the committee, and the vote fell mostly along party lines 14-13.
The planned Senate building is part of a much broader $273 million project to renovate the Capitol. While the overall renovation has bipartisan support, Republicans have seized on the Senate building as a wasteful and unnecessary use of taxpayer money. Democrats have said the renovation will displace offices and hearing rooms for good and the space is necessary, but some, including Gov. Mark Dayton, have also said it should be scaled back.
During Friday’s debate, Republicans also accused Democrats of sidestepping standard legislative procedure to approve the building plan last year.
“I was never asked, What do you think about options going forward?” said Rep. Kurt Zellers, R-Maple Grove, one of several GOP hopefuls who has attacked Dayton on the issue. “None of us were asked that.”
Rep. Ann Lenczewski, DFL-Bloomington, said the criticism was wrong. She said public hearings were held. Lenczewski also rejected Zellers’ complaint that the building wasn’t attached to a bonding bill, citing several examples of comparable proposals that move through the Legislature the same way.
“You are making a mockery of the process,” Lenczewski said. “You can be upset about the building or not. But please don’t attack the process. This is the typical process on every committee.”
House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt, R-Crown, reminded committee members that Dayton himself had described the building proposal as “lavish” and “un-Minnesotan” and urged the plan be rejected.
“The fact that we’ve moved completely on partisan lines indicates a deeper problem,” Daudt said.
The state Senate has approved the more expensive design. Majority Leader Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, who earlier complained that delays were adding costs to the project, said the Senate Rules Committee would take up the House version Monday.
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