The cost of government

"Our government spends money like water. Any why not? It is free money (so they think...)"

I think most of us have heard the old saying, "Only government could screw up screwing in a light bulb." Ain't that the truth! Today in the paper were two articles side by side demonstrating just how bad our state government operates. How people which work within government have zero concept of cost control. And why should they? It is after all, free money.

It seems that before Duane Benson left his job on the Stadium Commission, he foretold of looming cost overruns. "Nonsense!" shouted the political hack who is in charge of this mess. Well today it was disclosed that maybe Mr. Benson was correct. It seems there is a $15M bill looking for a home. And Mortenson Construction (the prime contractor), does not feel like eating it. So they are asking for mediation to get it resolved.

I have written about this before. Mortenson Construction is a heavy duty player. They have been around the block. They build big things and do it well. The Stadium Commission is loaded with political hacks, especially at the top. In fact, the #2 person, Michelle Helm, is much more concerned about why her enormous salary is not as enormous as Fritz's kid's salary. Meanwhile, it seems that nobody involved knew how to write a contract which addressed cost containment. The net result is having orphaned expenses looking for a home. But so what? It is after all, free money.

Then there was the article about the $30M increase in the train to nowhere (aka SWLRT). The brand new head of the Met Council, another political hack, is no more qualified to run giant projects like this than any other Tom, DICK, or Harry. But who cares? His wife is tucked under the Governor's wing. And the Governor likes choo-choo trains. So where did this $30M come from? Maybe accounting gimmicks. Maybe it was never considered in the first place. Maybe lousy contracting. You have a group of 17 people, hand picked by our trust fund Governor, who has never held a job with P+L responsibilities . How did you expect this would turn out?

One more thing before I finish my morning rant. It seems that Maryland (a deep blue state) is going after vendors who worked on their version of MNSure - and failed to live up to contractual obligations. A couple of Republican legislators sent a letter to our Governor asking why we are not doing the same. And this is not chump change - Maryland is going after $45M (I am sure ours is bigger).

The question I must ask is far more basic. Why does a letter need to be sent to the CEO of our state to get this resolved? Is there nobody running the MNSure Program who knows what they are doing? Who knows how to read a contract? Is this another political hack who is no more knowledgeable than any other person? And how much are we paying this hack for doing nothing?

All three of these examples show one thing very clearly - no accountability. The skill set of many people I have worked with in government has been amazingly low. And money (our money) keeps pouring in, getting spent, and often times poorly. The cost of government is inefficiency. It is blatant, unfixable, inefficient madness. And it will NEVER improve until we demand an end to political cronyism. Political cronyism which leads to money wasting organizations like the Met Council and the Stadium Commission.