Saint Paul 2008

Even if they never have to pony up a penny, someone’s going to have to guarantee operating expenses for the RNC convention in St. Paul in 2008 - up to 39 million dollars. It could be the state; it could be the Metropolitan Council; it could be some other body. Nobody’s quite sure just yet.

Whether or not you agree that Minnesota taxpayers potentially funding the convention is a good and just thing or not, we suspect you’d probably agree that the state’s legislature had ought to have a say in the matter. Alas, at least at the moment, they haven’t. It likely doesn’t matter, as Herr Oberguvernator Pawlenty is expected to veto the current budget bill, and any representative who doesn’t notice the convention funding getting attached to the next budget, or the one after that, or the one after that… probably deserves to vote for the stupid thing, after all.

As far as we can tell, the 39 million dollar promissory note, basically, is just a line of credit in case, and only in case, the convention operating committee does not recoup it’s operating costs, which are already heavily subsidized up the wahoo; such an event is highly unlikely. The $39M would not, unless we’re mis-reading things, be available for post-convention expenses like legal fees, damages awarded to abused activists, and things of that sort. Which is good news, I guess; taxpayers’ paying not only for the Minneapolis Police Department to beat the daylights out of Critical Mass activists, but also the latter’s lawsuit payouts would add insult to injury.

What it does do, I believe, is tie up thirty-nine million dollars of the state’s money (assuming the legislature approves it) for a year or two, which could doubtless be better employed. Oh, well; it’s only money…