Let Freedom Ring Blog

According to this article, Gov. Dayton insists that he didn’t learn of MNsure’s problems and contract changes until after the launch:

Gov. Mark Dayton said Friday that he first learned at least six months later of controversial contract changes made by the state’s health exchange. He said he also didn’t know about the serious technical issues plaguing MNsure until after the exchange’s Oct. 1 launch.

First, it’s painfully obvious that Gov. Dayton floats through life oblivious to what’s happening around him. This crisis, Gov. Dayton insists that he didn’t know about the technical issues tormenting potential MNsure users or that significant changes of responsibilities had been made through new contracts with vendors.

This fits Gov. Dayton’s pattern of being ignorant of what’s happening around him. Gov. Dayton said he didn’t know that the Tax Bill he signed and negotiated included expanding the sales tax to farm equipment repairs:

He certainly didn’t mind signing the farm equipment repair sales tax increase into law. It wasn’t until he got to FarmFest that he reversed course.

That’s nothing compared with Gov. Dayton’s supposed surprise that the Vikings Stadium bill had a provision in it for the Vikings to sell personal seat licenses, aka PSLs:

“I strongly oppose shifting any part of the team’s responsibility for those costs onto Minnesota Vikings fans,” he said in his letter. “This private contribution is your responsibility, not theirs. I said this new stadium would be a ‘People’s Stadium,’ not a ‘Rich People’s Stadium.’ I meant it then, and I mean it now.”

By contract, seat licenses would be sold by the public stadium authority, which is run by one of Dayton’s former top staffers. Dayton said he would ask the authority not to sell seat licenses, and he plans to ask the Legislature, if necessary, to press his case and block their sale.

Nothing happened in terms of blocking the sale of the Vikings PSLs because Gov. Dayton didn’t have a political or legal leg to stand on:

The Vikings said in a statement Tuesday, Nov. 13, that they were disappointed with Dayton’s letter. The team said the letter “does not recognize a key component of the stadium agreement struck by the Vikings, state and local leaders this past spring.”

Gov. Dayton, that’s three strikes. Hopefully, this time next year, you’ll be out of office and a real leader will be in office, one who actually pays attention to the things he’s signing.

It’s pretty pathetic that Gov. Dayton signed the exchange into law, then ignored it after that. He wasn’t aware that data security wasn’t a priority with the MNsure board. He defintely wasn’t aware that changes had been made to the contracts involving the building of the MNsure portal.

Here’s the first thing I’m reminded of in reading the article:

Minnesota needs a leader, not a well-known figurehead. We definitely don’t need a modern day Sgt. Schultz. Unfortunately, we’ve got the latter, not the former.

Technorati: Mark Dayton, MNsure, Personal Seat Licenses, Farm Equipment Repair Sales Tax, Incompetence, Cronyism, Oversight, DFL, Election 2014

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