That’s right; the state government of Wisconsin (no doubt on orders emanating from the governor’s office) is claiming it will take $7.5 million to restore the state capitol to its pre-protest condition.
All together now: Bullshit.
Most of the damage, the state says, was to the marble in the building. People taped stuff to the marble, and it’s going to cost the state big bucks to restore it.
They should talk to Steve M.
I found this company in Michigan offering to do marble restoration for commercial customers at a rate of $1.20 – $1.80 per square foot. For $7 million, even at his top rate of $1.80, this guy would apparently restore nearly 4 million square feet of marble. How big is this Capitol Building, anyway? (By point of comparison, there are 4 million square feet of event/exhibit/meeting space for conventions in the entire D.C. metro area, which covers nine major D.C. convention spaces, plus several in the surrounding suburbs.)
As for the trash pickup, Steve found that the 2008 “ticker tape” parade in Manhattan after the New York Giants Super Bowl win cost the city around $331,000 for floats, added police protection, and clean-up. The clean-up included picking up 36 tons of paper. That’s, um, a lot of paper. And the work was done by those “overpaid” union goon sanitation workers Councilman Dan Halloran was complaining about.
Steve also found that the cost for cleaning up New Orleans’ annual Mardi Gras mess runs about $1.5 million total, or about $100,000 a day.
A Dane County court judge, John C. Albert, [ruled] all Capitol access restrictions must be lifted by the Department of Administration. This allows open access to the Capitol for the public, including protesters, during business hours. Albert gave a deadline of March 8 at 8am (next Monday) for full implementation; if Gov. Walker and the DOA do not comply, they can be held in contempt of court. Albert also said in his ruling that there have been, based on his investigation, “no injuries or damage to personal or government property,†which is a direct shot at the bogus claim of millions of dollars in damages.
So the $7.5 million damage is just bare-assed propaganda. Even some righties expressed skepticism, although they still blame unions for the expense.
This reminds me of the claims from 2001 by bushie staffers that the outgoing Clinton administration staff had “trashed” the White House. The GAO investigated and found the amount of “trashing” was minor and about what it had been after the Bush I administration had cleared out. Not that righties ever acknowledged the debunking. More from an old Salon article.
Not to mention that, according to one Republican state official, the protesters were having an “absolute ball” (while sleeping on bare marble floors.)
A gallon of mineral spirits or WD-40 and some light elbow grease will clean any gum residue off of the marble walls without damaging them. The only way it could possibly cost $7.5 million to clean is if your brother in-law is the cleaning contractor.
Earlier today on Steve M’s site, I broke down the numbers to show how REDICULOUS their estimate is.
I usually try to be original on all sites, but, with your permission maha, here’s what I wrote earlier:
‘Jesus, maybe they’re right and those WI school teachers really do suck – no one there seems to know anything about math!
Or, more likely, it’s just the Republican Governor and his staff who can’t add, subtract, multiply or divide.
For $7.5 million, what’s going to happen, workers and supervisors are going to descend like clouds of locusts on the Capital Building?
$500,000 for two days of supervision? FTW?
That’s $250,000 per day!
What, are they going to have 250 supervisors out there at $1,000 per day? Or 500 supervisors at $500 per day? 1,000 supervisors at $250 per day? No wonder there’s a budget crunch, that’s a lot of money annually paid for supervision!
And how many workers will they supervise for the remaining, oh, just to be kind, say, $6million (minus $1 million for rubbing alchohol, paper towels, mops, Formula 401, and other cleaning supplies. HA!) – $3 million per day? So, how many are you going to need, what, 30,000 workers at $100 per day? That would be a salary of over $25,000 a year per worker – pretty generous for a cleaning person. Not bad work if you can get it.
My guess is that if the state spent the money on cleaning supplies, and had a few supervisors out there, the protesters would gladly have cleaned up whatever mess they created for well under the “7.5 million.”
$7.5 million? FAIL!!!”
We should all move to Wisconsin and get jobs as supervisors.
Come to think of it, for $7 million maybe they could build a dormitory annex so that protesters don’t have to sleep in the rotunda.
I smell desperation. Check your shoes, Governor, I think you stepped in it.
I remember the stories about Hillary making off with the White House silverware and drapes as she headed to her new digs up in New York. At the time I actually believed it because Hillary had been painted as a money grubbing bitch who had no sense of decency or concern for anybody other than herself.. I still see her as in it for herself, but not to the extreme that the GOP portrayed her. Remember the episode about renting out the Lincoln bedroom?
For $7 million, they can have Charlie Sheen out to deliver 6 of Gov. Walkers speeches to the crowds.
Walker’s reaching a Sheen-like derangement level. Or, is it more Qaddafi-like?
C U N D: Sheen-like derangement. To be Qaddafi-like, he’d have to begin dressing in a way more flamboyant manner; you know, color, braid, satin and silk, brocade, costumes from any period movie. Walker don’t have the chops for pulling that off.
Well, maybe the cleanup crew is unionized.
KIDDING.
“Well. maybe the cleanup crew was unionized.”
More likely they work for Goldman Sachs.Or Blackwater.
NOT Kidding………..
I don’t know, PurpleGirl, for all we know he may put on colorful Somali women’s dresses and wear his red ‘fuck-me’ pumps to go out and dance the night away on Saturday nights.
Something tells me he wouldn’t be the only Republican in the nation doing that.
And not that there’s anything wrong with that…
November cannot come soon enough to recall this jerk.