February 16-19, 2018
Feb 16 00:25 Steve Cwodzinski's priorities Feb 16 08:16 Campaign issue alert! Feb 16 21:10 Somewhere, Adam Schiff is crying Feb 18 02:52 SCSU: flunking the basics? Feb 18 13:32 Getting to a solution Feb 19 03:17 Grading SCSU, the community Feb 19 08:56 From citizens to subjects Feb 19 09:53 Gov. Dayton's MNLARS catastrophe Feb 19 11:07 Dale Lueck's fight vs. MNLARS
Prior Months: Jan
Prior Years: 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Steve Cwodzinski's priorities
Thursday night, I wrote this post about Sen. Cwodzinski's interview with a local paper. One of the things covered was infrastructure. The reporter asked " What are your thoughts about the latest delays in the Southwest Light Rail Transit project? " Sen. Cwodzinski replied "These delays are completely unacceptable. Our state has put together the resources necessary to get this done, and now the federal government is leaving us waiting. As I said earlier though, I am very hopeful that out state and the federal government can build an effective partnership on infrastructure. Southwest LRT is the cornerstone of that, so am hopeful that we will receive the federal funds this year."
It's time for Sen. Cwodzinski to stop relying on wishful thinking. It's time for him to deal with reality. Kim Crockett's article reports that the "FTA is not recommending funding for any projects in Minnesota. The projects that have applied for federal funds are Southwest LRT, Bottineau LRT, the Metro Orange Line bus rapid transit along 35W, and the Metro Gold Line bus rapid transit in St. Paul. The FTA is limiting funding to 'projects with existing full funding grant agreements. For the remaining projects in the CIG program, FTA is not requesting or recommending funding. Future investments in new transit projects would be funded by the localities that use and benefit from these localized projects.'"
This is a major blow to Gov. Dayton and Sen. Cwodzinski.
The Met Council, under [Gov. Dayton's] leadership, developed a long-term transportation and housing plan that was entirely based on light rail expansion into the suburbs, with subsidized housing along the LRT to drive ridership and transform the metro area under a vision called "Thrive MSP 2040."
The plan has been rejected by the five suburban counties in the metro area . The Legislature in 2017 withdrew its support from Southwest LRT and placed the Met Council under a quarterly audit by the Office of Legislative Auditor.
Apparently, Sen. Cwodzinski isn't in touch with his constituents. They've rejected the Met Council's vision for transportation. Seeing that, the GOP legislature pulled funding for these boondoggles, then ordered quarterly audits of the Met Council by the legislative auditor's office. I'd consider that a harsh slap to the Met Council's face. After watching this video, hopefully lots of people will think that the Met Council needs a harsh slap in the face:
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First, my compliments to the ladies that put the video together. It's long overdue. Well done. After watching it, I'm questioning what (if?) Gov. Dayton and Sen. Cwodzinski were thinking. Next, Sen. Cwodzinski's constituents should ask themselves if they're ok with unaccountable central planners making expensive decisions that dictate what types of things their cities and their neighborhoods will have.
Finally and most importantly, people should question whether they like the thought of not having a say in their neighborhood's matters. I'm betting that they'd prefer keeping their decisions in their hands, not in the Met Council's hands.
Posted Friday, February 16, 2018 12:25 AM
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Campaign issue alert!
President Trump hasn't been bashful in calling Nancy Pelosi the "Republicans' secret weapon" in the 2018 election. Perhaps the President needs to rethink that opinion. It isn't that Pelosi has quickly gotten popular. She's still as unpopular as ants at a picnic. It's that Chuck Schumer's popularity has taken a significant dip recently .
The latest Quinnipiac University Poll "found that 53 percent of voters approve of the job the minority leader is doing in the Senate, while 35 percent do not approve. That is the lowest approval rating Schumer has received since 1999, just months after he was first elected to the U.S. Senate."
Sen. Schumer is a major drag on battleground state Democrats. How many Democrat senators he'll hurt remains to be seen but his decisions have already contributed to the Democrats' vulnerable situation going into 2018. The #SchumerShutdown hurt immensely. The only thing that's hurt Democrats more was unanimously rejecting the Trump/GOP tax cuts. As a result, Democrats should consider a net loss of less than 5 seats in the Senate a moral victory.
The latest Democrat mistake is rejecting President Trump's immigration plan. The Common Sense Coalition's plan isn't serious about border security, which I explained in this post :
On Pg. 51 of the amendment, we learn that $1,571,000,000,000 is appropriated to build President Trump's wall in 2018. Further, $2,500,000,000,000 is available to be appropriated in each year starting in 2019 and going through 2027. Further, the legislative language states that 'the amount specified in subsection (d) for each of fiscal years 2019-2027 shall not be available for such fiscal year unless (A) the Secretary submits to Congress, not later than 60 days before the start of such fiscal year a report setting forth a description of every planned expenditure: , (B) a description of the total number of miles of security fencing: etc.
The money isn't appropriated all at once, meaning that future congresses can stop the building of the wall. Don't think President Trump won't campaign against red state Democrats on that issue this fall. I'd bet the proverbial ranch that will be a major thorn in the Democrats' sides.
Democrats shouldn't think that they have political cover on this, either. Just because Jeff Flake, Lindsey Graham and Bob Corker signed onto the bill doesn't provide cover. It simply means the American people reject them, saying a pox on all their houses. The American people want real border security. They aren't interested in political gamesmanship, which is what the Collins-Durbin-Graham bill was. This video is misleading:
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Just $1,571,000,000 is appropriated to build the wall. The rest of the money is promised but not appropriated. Sound familiar?
Democrats are playing a risky game. Don't bet on it turning out well for them this fall.
UPDATE: This video exposes Democrats:
Posted Friday, February 16, 2018 9:05 AM
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Somewhere, Adam Schiff is crying
When Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced the indictments of 13 Russians and "3 Russian entities", Rosenstein specifically said "There is no allegation in this indictment that any American was a knowing participant in this illegal activity. There is no allegation in this indictment that the charged conduct altered the outcome."
Somewhere, Adam Schiff is likely crying in his beer.
The indictment itself specifically states that a company called "Internet Research Agency, LLC" was created in 2014, long before the presidential campaign started. Further, the indictment states that the Russians plan was a) sophisticated enough to fool American political activists that the activists thought they were dealing with other like-minded American activists. The Russians' goal was to sow distrust.
On one day, Nov. 12, 2016, the defendants organized a rally in New York to "show your support for President-elect Donald Trump" while at the same time organizing a "Trump is NOT my president rally" that also was held in New York.
While this indictment doesn't totally clear the Trump campaign, it's definitely a defeat for the Democrats, especially Rep. Schiff. Schiff has invested tons of time in front of TV cameras insisting that he'd seen proof that Trump colluded with Russians.
[Video no longer available]
This is the biggest news from the special counsel's office thus far. Not only does it not accuse the Trump campaign of colluding with Russians, it states that people from Trump's campaign "unwittingly" participated in the Russians' plot:
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said the defendants created hundreds of accounts using fake personas on the social media platforms Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to advance their scheme. One example of that was the Twitter account "Tennessee GOP," which used the handle @TEN_GOP," and "which falsely claimed to be controlled by a U.S. state political party," the indictment said. "Over time, the @TEN_GOP account attracted more than 100,000 online followers."
The defendants also allegedly used a "computer infrastructure, based partly in the United States, to hide the Russian origin of their activities and to avoid detection" by US authorities, the indictment said.
It isn't a stretch to think that this plot achieved its goal, which was to create distrust in our election.
What's sad is that the MSM is totally content with sowing additional distrust with their 'reporting'.
Posted Friday, February 16, 2018 9:10 PM
Comment 1 by Chad Q at 17-Feb-18 08:38 AM
Do you really think this will stop the democrats from claiming Trump colluded with the Russians? I don't think so. When you tell a lie long enough, it becomes the truth.
Response 1.1 by Gary Gross at 17-Feb-18 11:46 AM
When you tell a lie long enough, it becomes the truth.That's true except when a federal grand jury emphatically states otherwise.
SCSU: flunking the basics?
Towards the end of Dick Andzenge's monthly column , Professor Andzenge wrote "My granddaughter is a college-bound senior in one of the area high schools. Since last year, she has received weekly solicitations in the form of email, fliers and postcards from universities and colleges from several universities in Michigan, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Montana, South Dakota, other universities in Minnesota, and New York. Some offer her special status consideration and include routine updates of events at the university. I asked her if she and her friends have received such solicitations from St. Cloud State University. She said she has not received anything and does not know of her classmates who did."
Earlier in Andzenge's column, he wrote "Regional comprehensive universities, such as St. Cloud State, have the clear purpose of serving university-bound high school graduates from the region in which they are located. High school students enrolling at the university do not commit to staying at the university. In fact, many of them do not. They do not pay regular tuition and therefore cannot be the solution. The expectation of transferred students from two-year colleges is also not a solution."
This is appalling. St. Cloud State is in the midst of an eight year enrollment decline but they can't be bothered to send a simple email to prospective college-bound high school seniors pitching their campus as a place to get an education? Why wouldn't the University have someone tasked with talking with every high school junior or senior within a 75-mile radius of the University? Especially for a university in St. Cloud State's predicament, isn't this a display of utter incompetence? If it isn't, why isn't it?
There's no question that President Potter's death stunned the campus community. Still, shouldn't the community ask what was being done in the most important functions of the University? It's fair to say that the primary function of a university is to provide a great learning experience. What grade has the University earned in this respect? One of the worst-kept secrets in town is that some types of businesses won't even interview a recent SCSU graduate. This isn't true of all of the University programs. Still, it happens often enough to warrant concern.
Another important responsibility of universities is to make sound financial decisions. On this front, there's more than sufficient evidence to conclude that SCSU has failed this responsibility. The highest-profile example of financial incompetence is the University's lease with the Wedum Foundation. That lease has cost SCSU approximately $10,000,000 since it opened. That's just the checks that the University sent to the Foundation. That isn't counting the lost dorm revenue.
Another financial boondoggle was paying the City of St. Cloud $240,000 per year for 3 police officers who didn't police the campus. The original contract was for 3 years. The sad news is that that contract was extended. It's incomprehensible that a university that's experiencing enrollment declines and that's sending $1,000,000 checks each year to a foundation for rooms not getting rented would then spend $250,000 a year for something that the city is responsible for. I wouldn't agree to that policing arrangement if the University was flush with money, much less when it's running multi-million dollar annual deficits.
That's before the one-time expense of rebranding. SCSU spent almost $450,000 on that project. (I still get a kick out of the fact that EMG opaquely said that LFR was responsible for the University's negative image.) Five years later, it's apparent that the reason why the University has a negative image is because it isn't being run properly from a financial standpoint.
That's before the $50,000 Great Place to Work Institute boondoggle.
As of this morning, the University is paying a professor not to teach. Instead, he's being paid to do union work and be a political activist in the community. That's been going on at least 3 years at $70,000/yr.
As for the community and the politicians, they've been invisible for the most part. Zach Dorholt was the vice-chair of the House Higher Ed Committee. He did nothing. This year's DFL candidate, Dan Wolgamott, has talked a big game about "bringing people together." Thus far, he hasn't said anything about the crisis. As a real estate agent, he's seen the drain of wealth from St. Cloud. Why hasn't he done anything to turn SCSU around?
For that matter, why hasn't the business community stepped forward and insisted that the University become relevant again? It isn't like their workforce needs are being met. It isn't like businesses are racing to buy land to build 'value-added' companies. When was the last time that St. Cloud built a new factory?
I've said this before but I'll repeat it here. SCSU needs a turnaround artist with leadership skills. They haven't had that in years. That shortcoming needs to stop ASAP.
Posted Sunday, February 18, 2018 2:52 AM
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Getting to a solution
When I read articles like this one , I want to punch the author for being this dishonest or this ill-informed. Ill-informed diatribes like this don't get us to a solution on stopping school shootings. In his ill-informed rant, Scarborough wrote "More than 90 percent of Americans agree that Congress should pass tougher background checks. More than 80 percent of Americans at least somewhat favor a ban on 'bump stocks' that make rifles fire much like automatic weapons. And nearly 80 percent believe that assault-style weapons should be banned."
Guess what, Joe? You've been pumping out this BS about tougher background checks for years. It's a myth. Whether a person buys a gun at a gun show or at a gun shop, the dealer must perform a background check. The so-called 'gun show loophole' is a myth. As for banning bump stocks, I'm totally fine with that. Nobody needs an automatic weapon. Finally, Scarborough's elitism and ignorance is showing when he talks about "assault-style weapons." The difference between "assault-style weapons" and regular semi-automatic weapons are entirely cosmetic.
Banning assault-style weapons is a feel-good thing that won't affect a solution. The old liberal saw that 'Well, if it would save one innocent life, it's worth it' is hogwash. That change won't save a single life. Period. Earlier in the article, Scarborough wrote this:
And once again, I and many other reasonable conservatives find ourselves at odds with GOP - read: National Rifle Association - orthodoxy.
Apparently, Joe isn't bright enough to understand that the NRA isn't an evil boogeyman. The NRA is a potent political force because it's made up of people who feel passionately about guns and gun safety. The NRA is We The People, not some bunch of right-wing lunatics.
Rants like Scarborough's do more harm than good. It's what makes conservatives distrust liberals like him. He should step out of his liberal echochamber and watch thoughtful shows like this:
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One of Gutfeld's panelists was Tyrus. Elitists will roll their eyes when they hear that he's a professional wrestler. These elitists will ignore the fact that he used to be a licensed body guard. Here's his thoughts on how to prevent these shootings:
This is coming from being an executive of security and, for a short stint, I was a teacher. When I was listening to this, first of all, if we outlawed guns tomorrow, no more guns in this country, all you would do would be opening the business market to the black market. That's just not who we are. We have freedom of speech and we're allowed to have guns. When 9/11 happened and the planes crashed into the Towers, airports were changed forever. Our children are getting hit. It's time to change the schools forever. There's a population out there, and I've checked -- they didn't have the new stats out but they had last year's stats -- 4.3% unemployment rate of returning veterans. That's 435,000 trained men who have eyes and ears. We need to have them in schools.
Hardening soft targets makes sense. This notion that we don't want the nation's children exposed to guns is dangerous. It's time we admitted that gun-free zones are where these killers feast. They know they don't have to worry about getting shot.
Another thing that isn't talked about is how many of these mass shooters were on the FBI's radar with very specific information, only to not get kept under scrutiny. That's leading to people on social media starting a new hashtag: #SeeSomethingSaySomething Do Something. That's because the government failed us. According to this article , "police responded to his home 39 times over a seven-year period."
Scarborough didn't mention that in his anti-gun diatribe. Isn't it time we held the FBI accountable for their failures? That likely wouldn't sit well with Scarborough's pro-government tendencies. He'd probably join with other liberals in singing the 'Republicans hate law enforcement' anthem. When government makes a deadly mistake, should we pretend that everything is fine? I don't think so.
While elitists like Scarborough predictably retreat to their 'let's ban guns' corner, people living in the real world attempt to find a solution. It's a shame that elitists don't think things through and pursue a solution.
Posted Sunday, February 18, 2018 1:32 PM
Comment 1 by Chad Q at 18-Feb-18 05:32 PM
Either the FBI or AFT did a study of the "assault weapon" ban of the 90's and it showed no significant difference in the murder rate so it was just a feel good ban. We don't need more gun control laws.
Also, to these kids down in Florida railing against the President and the GOP for not passing gun control laws (that won't change a damn thing), go bitch to the democrats who had complete control and were united on all fronts from 2009 - 2011 and did nothing but ram Obamacare down our throats. Maybe that was their plan, kill off more people with guns so they aren't using health care.
Grading SCSU, the community
Yesterday, I wrote this post , which I titled "SCSU: flunking the basics?" One of the categories I included was financial management. In that section, I talked about specific examples of financial mismanagement. While relaxing Sunday, I remembered an oldie but goodie that I'd omitted. Specifically, I'd forgotten about the Masters Degree St. Cloud State offered for a while. I wrote about it in this post in 2011.
I opened the post with a quote 'explaining' why Aviation had to be shut down. At the time, President Potter said that "We have very fine students in a very strong program we can no longer afford." I found that to be more than a little dishonest. I replied to that quote by noting that the salaries for the professors for the Masters Degree in Social Responsibility was $1,218,000 whereas the salaries of the professors for Aviation was less than $300,000.
Why would the University spend that much money in salaries for a marginal (at best) victimology degree when they could've used that money to expand the Aviation program to include drone training? Graduates from drone training get hired almost immediately after graduation to salaries starting at $50,000 a year.
MnSCU is partially to blame for this. Specifically, former Chancellor Rosenstone is partially to blame. Several years ago, he said that he'd consider reinstating Aviation if President Potter asked for it to be reinstated. That's a classic dodge. It was his way of not leading. Devinder Malhotra, currently the interim chancellor of 'Minnesota State', aka MnSCU, refuses to lead, too. The chancellors both deserve a D- grade because they haven't lead and they haven't solved MnSCU's problems.
St. Cloud's community leaders have been apathetic at best. Various leaders have praised the University for being more involved in the community. That's fair. Unfortunately, they've been silent about the University's inability to produce a well-trained workforce. The chief responsibility of SCSU isn't to be involved in the community. SCSU's chief responsibility is to train St. Cloud's workforce of the future. Considering what Dick Andzenge wrote in his monthly column, there's no way they're meeting that responsibility. Here's what Andzenge wrote :
My granddaughter is a college-bound senior in one of the area high schools. Since last year, she has received weekly solicitations in the form of email, fliers and postcards from universities and colleges from several universities in Michigan, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Montana, South Dakota, other universities in Minnesota, and New York. Some offer her special status consideration and include routine updates of events at the university. I asked her if she and her friends have received such solicitations from St. Cloud State University. She said she has not received anything and does not know of her classmates who did.
It's one thing to lose a competition with another school. There's no shame in that. Losing without a stiff fight for local students, though, that's unacceptable.
Similarly, it's one thing to praise the University for its civic involvement. It's inexcusable to sit silent for years while the University doesn't meet its primary responsibility. This pertains equally to the politicians, too. That isn't to say that they've done nothing. It's fair to say, though, that they haven't done enough or that they haven't been effective in changing SCSU's direction.
Apathy and ineffectiveness are hurting SCSU. That must end ASAP.
Finally, too many of the faculty at St. Cloud State have operated in a 'what's in it for me' attitude for years. Too many of them have played politics to establish cushy little do-nothing jobs. It's time for the University to either get rid of that dead weight or to force them to teach classes. It's time to declare 'no more free lunches' at taxpayers' expense.
Posted Monday, February 19, 2018 3:17 AM
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From citizens to subjects
Kurt Schlichter is onto something in his newest column when he wrote "No one who wants us to give up our guns does so because they want us to be more able to defend ourselves from crime or tyranny. Their agenda is clear, no matter how much they lie and deny. Disarmament is key to converting us from citizens to subjects , and we're just not playing that game. So they mutter about the NRA, which you need to join if you dig freedom, and we keep buying guns and ammunition to create the facts on the ground that will ensure their long-sought after end state of another Venezuela will never happen here.
After last week's shooting, Democrats reflexively jumped back onto the gun control bandwagon. That was handed a stinging setback on Friday. That's when the FBI admitted that they'd recently received specific information that was actionable, then didn't follow up on the tip that might've saved 17 lives.
Thus far, I haven't heard anyone say that the US should adopt Australia's gun laws -- yet. President Obama and Secretary Clinton have touted those laws in the past as a model the US should follow. They talked specifically about Australia's 'gun buyback', which was actually a gun confiscation program :
The crucial fact they omit is that the buyback program was mandatory. Australia's vaunted gun buyback program was in fact a sweeping program of gun confiscation. Only the articles from USA Today and the Washington Post cited above contain the crucial information that the buyback was compulsory. The article by Smith-Spark, the latest entry in the genre, assuredly does not. It's the most important detail about the main provision of Australia's gun laws, and pundits ignore it. That's like writing an article about how Obamacare works without once mentioning the individual mandate.
In this video, Mark Halperin took time to engage in a debate with Charles C.W. Cooke on gun control:
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Saying that it didn't end well for Halperin is understatement. Halperin initially states "I agree with the President. People have to find solutions to this and not talk about what won't work and that it's so complicated. We can't be the only country in the world that's like this." Cooke quickly replies "Alright then, what's your plan?" Halperin spends the next minute dodging and slipping Cooke's question. Ultimately, Halperin's answer is that he isn't a "gun policy expert." Talk about stating the obvious.
What's required is to harden the schools. Have only 1 entry/exit point. Shut and lock the doors when school starts anyone wanting in or out has to ring the alarm and be let in. It'd be great if government didn't miss the tips they'd received about the various shooters, most recently, the Parkland shooter.
What's painfully obvious is that Democrats are ideology-driven, not solutions-driven. That's why the generic ballot is trending away from them.
Posted Monday, February 19, 2018 8:56 AM
Comment 1 by Chad Q at 19-Feb-18 07:46 PM
It's not about gun control, it's all about control.
Gov. Dayton's MNLARS catastrophe
Jeff Baillon's article should get heads rolling at MNLARS. Whether that'll happen is anyone's guess. (I'm betting it won't.) First, everyone who's dealt with MNLARS knows that it's a gigantic failure. That's indisputable. What's in question is whether the Dayton administration knew it was heading for a crash and whether the administration gave it the go-ahead anyway. According to the article, Bob Helland was "a MNLARS Business Process Analyst." He's the key figure in this mess. This is one of the major contributions he made to the investigation:
Plans to test and catch software defects were woefully inadequate. They warned both DVS and MN IT management the project was in danger of becoming a "public and political spectacle." Helland said his concerns fell on deaf ears.
That led to Helland's second major contribution:
So in March of 2015, he went straight to the Governor's office. He met with Jaime Tincher, the Governor's Chief of Staff at the time and secretly recorded their nearly hour-long conversation. "There's very little confidence in DVS management," he can be heard telling Tincher on the recording. "This was kind of the last straw for me to say, there's no truth in the public about this project and we have no truth internally, so I felt compelled to let you guys know."
Tincher seemed interested in what Helland had to say. "I would like to look into this. I want to do some outreach," she told Helland. She added she was going to talk with Tom Baden, the Commissioner of MN IT. "So I'd kind of like to get a sense from him and just ask him to dig in and come back to us with what he thinks is going on, what is happening there and try to dig into that," she said on the recording.
Baden, who in Feb 2018 took early retirement, told the Fox 9 Investigators he does not remember ever getting a call from Tincher about the concerns. "To the best of my recollection I did not have that conversation," he said to the Fox 9 Investigators.
The issue didn't die there:
And a spokesman for Governor Dayton said the Governor doesn't remember anyone on his staff bringing Helland's concerns to his attention back in 2015. After MNLARS tumultuous roll out last summer, Dayton was quick to say things weren't as bad as critics were making it sound. "Once again Republican Legislators are just delighted to jump on something if they think they can do damage to the credibility of state government, especially to a Democratic Governor," he told reporters during a news conference last August.
This video is frightening:
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It's clear that this project was mismanaged. Further, it's apparent that nobody should trust the Dayton administration. In Gov. Dayton's final term , his administration has leapt from one crisis after another. In Gov. Dayton's final term, he's failed to protect Minnesota seniors. Now, he's screwed up a major revamping project with MNLARS.
Gov. Dayton's administration hasn't policed its ranks in terms of getting their responsibilities completed properly. MNsure was a disaster. They didn't supervise the program that was supposed to provide heating assistance to poor people in Minneapolis. Gov. Dayton's Health Department didn't crack the whip on elder abuse investigations until it turned into a political disaster for the administration.
I don't see a reason to give the DFL the benefit of any doubt to run things right.
Posted Monday, February 19, 2018 9:53 AM
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Dale Lueck's fight vs. MNLARS
I just finished reading Rep. Dale Lueck's op-ed on the MNLARS disaster. Of all the articles I've read, Rep. Lueck's op-ed makes the most sense. I especially appreciated him writing "Delta, United, and American Airlines operate tens of thousands of aircraft daily. However, they rely on Boeing and Air Bus to design and build those airplanes. That model works. The private sector is good at designing and building things, including new buildings, new machines and new software systems. Once built and properly tested, then operation and general maintenance can be turned over to our state agencies. We are pushing the executive branch to adopt this approach. The long-term solution is not asking for more money to hire more state employees in this area."
Gov. Dayton's administration has already spent $93,000,000 on the MNLARS project. The DFL was only too happy to vote for spending that money. Now that MNLARS is a disaster on multiple fronts, the DFL wants to spend another $43,000,000 to fix the disaster.
Check this out:
Does anyone think that MN.IT meets "the promise of business value by delivering quality IT solutions on time and on budget"? Those of you who think that MN.IT is capable of guiding this project to a swift and successful conclusion are kidding themselves.
What was found is agencies that have been working on this project for almost 10 years, have spent $93 million in taxpayer money, and now want another $43 million to fix the 'new' system. Even with more funding, they are not sure when the system will be functioning properly.
The legislature shouldn't appropriate a penny until MN.IT is removed from this project. This is ridiculous. Gov. Dayton's administration thinks that government can do all things. The DFL complained that "Once again Republican Legislators are just delighted to jump on something if they think they can do damage to the credibility of state government, especially to a Democratic Governor."
Gov. Dayton was named the worst senator when he served in the U.S. Senate. Shouldn't we expect him to be the biggest screw-up in Minnesota's gubernatorial history?
Posted Monday, February 19, 2018 11:07 AM
Comment 1 by Chad Q at 19-Feb-18 05:51 PM
There are many companies that handle a lot larger volume of traffic on their web sites in a day than MNLARS will see in a year and they work flawlessly. Those companies would be broke and gone if their web site worked like MNLARS.
How Dayton and this administration have an approval rating that is still positive after all the debacles is beyond me.
Response 1.1 by Gary Gross at 19-Feb-18 11:18 PM
Dude, that's the power of the protective press.
