When Minnesota Governor’s Mansion Was Remodeled, Tim Walz Wanted Taxpayers To Pay $17K A Month For Him To Live In Lakeside Home

In 2023, the Minnesota governor’s mansion was renovated – and Gov. Tim Walz wanted taxpayers to foot the bill for a $17,000-a-month lakeside mansion as his temporary home.

In March of that year, Minnesota House Democrats voted down multiple times an amendment that would have capped the amount Walz could spend on temporary housing to $10,000 a month.

Democrats voted down an amendment that would have limited how much taxpayer money Gov. Walz can spend on rent while the Governor’s Mansion undergoes renovations.

He is currently slated to move into a $17,000 per month lakeside mansion. pic.twitter.com/6yscxvBnbi

— MN House GOP War Room (@MNHRCWarRoom) March 30, 2023

A public backlash ensued, and Walz broke his agreement to rent the lakeside mansion to instead rent the home of the president of the University of Minnesota for $4,400 a month, MPR News reported at the time.

In March 2023, Alpha News reported that Walz would be moving into a lakeside mansion costing taxpayers $17,000 a month for 18 months while the governor’s mansion was renovated. The nearly 8,000-square-foot mansion sat on 3.5 acres in Minnesota’s second-wealthiest city. The total cost of the stay would have cost taxpayers more than $300,000, on top of the cost of renovating the governor’s mansion. After the expense was revealed, Minnesota Rep. Paul Novotny, R-Elk River, released a statement saying the cost was “the wrong message to send taxpayers” and was “out-of-touch.”

“As Minnesotans struggle with soaring interest rates impacting the housing market, high inflation, and much more, it is incredibly tone-deaf for Gov. Walz to make taxpayers fork over $17,000 a month in rent payments for a palatial lakeside mansion for him and his family,” Novotny said.

Then-Rep. Jeremy Munson, another Republican, also pointed out that the governor’s mansion had been updated in 2013 for $2.6 million.

We just spent $2.6 million to renovate his house in 2013. Market value at the time was $2.7Mhttps://t.co/0ov9AuwdOo

— Jeremy Munson (@jeremymunson) March 27, 2023

The cost of the 2023 renovation also more than doubled from its initial estimate of $6.3 million, which included updates to plumbing and security. By June 2023, the renovation was estimated to cost $7.1 million, but by October, that number had ballooned to $12.8 million, MPR News reported at the time.

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In a letter, the Minnesota Department of Administration said the jump in cost was due to higher-than-expected bids to replace the home’s heating, air conditioning, ventilation, electrical, and plumbing systems. The department said some of the systems dated back to the home’s construction in 1912.

“This work to meet current code and life-safety requirements is necessary to complete if the facility is going to remain in use,” the department’s then-commissioner told Republican legislative leaders at the time, according to MPR.

A spokesperson for Walz told MPR at the time that the governor was “concerned about the increased costs and would like the Legislature to weigh in before the Department of Administration makes a decision to proceed with this project.”

The renovations are expected to be complete in September 2024, according to Minnesota’s government website.