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Capitol View®
Catharine Richert

PoliGraph: Bakk office building claim correct

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The proposed new Senate Office Building is getting a lot of attention at the Capitol right now, and will be getting a lot of attention this coming election season, too.

Republicans are using the estimated $90 million project as a way to paint the DFL majority as wasteful. Meanwhile, Gov. Mark Dayton and the House DFL have concerns about the cost and size of the project, too.

In defense of the new building, Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, said his chamber is actually giving up a lot of space during the simultaneous Capitol building renovation.

“The Governor is almost doubling his footprint in the Capitol under the new, tentative space allocation… The Services for the Blind are adding significant space. The Historical Society is almost doubling the amount of space they’re going to have in the Capitol. The Senate is giving up about 38,000 square feet of the space we occupy in this building.”

Bakk’s numbers are correct.

The Evidence

Bakk is getting his numbers from a February square footage estimate from the Department of Administration, which is overseeing the effort.

Here’s how the numbers break down.

  • Gov. Mark Dayton and his lieutenant will expand their office from about 9,000 square feet to 16,000 square feet – roughly double the space.

  • The Services for the Blind will gain about 600 square feet.

  • The Historical Society will gain about 2,200 square feet, roughly double what they have now.

  • And the Senate’s square footage will shrink by exactly 38,337 square feet.

The rest of the numbers are here.

The Verdict

Bakk is right. The Senate is losing 38,000 square feet in the Capitol renovation and there’s no final plan to make up for what they’re losing.