Perhaps Mr. Hanson and Mayor Rybak should look to comments made by Hennepin County Commissioner Johnson before they continue on their whining about their artsy fountains being paid on the public dime. Commissioner Johnson makes two points: 1) while it is true the $250,000 from the water fund is likely truly committed to water issues, is there really no better way to spend that money than on artsy fountains? I seem to remember not so long ago reading about disparate needs for the Minneapolis sewer system – which would seem to be a “water related issue”, 2) the comment about the bonding budget and, esentially, “it’s a dedicated pot” argument is simply not true. There is no reason the City Council and Mayor could not simply decide to decrease the capital bonding budget and increase the general budget to take care of those pesky things such as police and fire protection instead of fountains. The only reason that hasn’t happened is the Council and Mayor have chosen not to make those changes and instead beg for money through LGA (which, by the way, half the communities in MN do not receive at all).

Finally, while it is probably true the state spends around $10 million on art, that doesn’t mean it’s an appropriate expense, especially given the current financial climate. The argument that “…overwhelming decision by Minnesota voters in 2008 to constitutionally dedicate state funding for the arts…” is a clever deception. Yes, it passed and likely in part because of support for publicly funded art, but also by means of either voters not fully understanding what they were voting “yes” to (though, in fairness, that is not the fault of the City of Minneapolis, Mayor Rybak, or Mr. Hanson) but also because many in outstate MN voted yes as a compromise to get funding for sportsmen related projects (such as parks, hunting, etc) and not the arts. Indeed, the “Legacy Amendment” likely only passed because the Legislature put together a coalition of expenditures for the tax, not purely for arts.

In the end, funding for artsy water fountains is simply not justified through LGA, which is asking people outside Minneapolis to pay for Minneapolis’ follies. If the Council and Mayor want these fountains so badly, there is no reason they could not increase local taxes to pay for it – and then answer to their constituents for tax increases versus hiding behind LGA.