Statement regarding the State Building Commission’s approval of construction of the “Conservation Hall” underground ballroom at the Governor’s Mansion

NASHVILLE - The State Building Commission’s decision to proceed with construction of an underground ballroom at the Tennessee Governor’s Mansion today, despite serious questions raised by Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, reflects the casual attitude with which Democrats who dominate the panel are willing to spend taxpayer’s money.

Led by House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh, who chairs the State Building Commission, the commission voted 5-1 in favor of continuing the ballroom project, which will cost taxpayers more than $8.6 million.

“We echo the growing chorus of criticism from Republican and Democrat legislators questioning the spending of nearly $10 million in tax dollars on a ballroom project at the same time the Bredesen administration is contemplating sweeping budget cuts to address the state’s growing revenue shortfall,” said Bill Hobbs, communications director for the Tennessee Republican Party. “It is just wrong to spend $10 million of the taxpayers’ money on a ballroom for parties at the same time the state has cut funding for services for thousands of mentally disabled Tennesseans.”

The Division of Mental Retardation Services recently cut funding for support coordination, residential services, behavior services; physical, occupational and speech therapy; nursing and nutrition and personal assistance for the state’s mentally retarded population by $2,479,081, of which one third, or about $800,000, is state dollars.

“The Bredesen administration is spending ten times that on the ballroom,” Hobbs said.

And it is tax dollars that are paying for the ballroom. While the five Democrats on the Commission – Naifeh, Secretary of State Riley Darnell, State Treasurer Dale Sims, Finance Commissioner David Goetz, and Comptroller John Morgan - claim the project is being funded with private money, that is misleading.

State records obtained by the Tennessee Republican Party document a shell game in which $4 million in private donations for the renovation of the existing Governor’s Mansion were transferred, on paper, to the ballroom project and replaced by taxpayer money funneled to the renovation of the existing mansion, a project originally promised to be funded largely with private donations.

“Private money donated for the mansion renovation was diverted to the ballroom project and taxpayers were then stuck with most of the tab for the mansion renovation,” Hobbs said.

In all, because of the addition of the new ballroom to what was a renovation project, the overall cost to taxpayers has risen $8.6 million above the original $1.5 million that the mansion project was supposed to cost taxpayers.

Lt. Gov. Ramsey, the sole Republican on the Commission, cast the lone dissenting vote today against the ballroom project. Sen. Ramsey has been a member of the Commission since January of 2006. He raised two main objections to the project before voting no – the project’s rapidly ballooning cost, and the state’s claim that the project does not require local approval by the city of Oak Hill because it is a state project but that the project does not have to be competitively bid because it is being built by the Tennessee Residence Foundation, a private non-profit.

“The administration’s claim that the ballroom is a state project when it comes to local zoning, but a private project when it comes to the state’s competitive bidding rules simply doesn’t pass the smell test,” Hobbs said.

The minutes of the State Building Commission show that at the January 2004 meeting, Democrat Rep. Jimmy Naifeh commented that the Executive Residence “needs everything the First Lady asked for, and then some.” Naifeh, according to the minutes of the meeting, also said he hoped the project would be expanded to include “the additional building,” meaning the ballroom, as it was necessary for the governor to conduct business.

Oddly, the lack of the ballroom has not hindered previous governors, and the state already has facilities in the Tennessee Tower and the War Memorial Auditorium capable of hosting large functions.

“Tennesseans should demand accountability and should be able to trust in their government and those who lead it,” said Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Robin Smith. “Thank you, Lt. Gov. Ramsey, for speaking for the taxpayers and for common sense today.”

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Bill Hobbs
Communications Director
Tennessee Republican Party
2424 21st Avenue, Suite 200
Nashville, Tennessee 37212
Phone: (615) 269-4260
Email: billhobbs@tngop.org