A few posts back (“History is Now Officially Bunk“) I suggested that if Gov. Granholm really wanted to establish a Michigan Center for Innovation and Reinvention at what is now the Michigan Historical Center, she should auction the building to the highest bidder, preferably a tax-paying bidder. What could be more innovative and re-inventive than that as a way to build a sustainable Michigan economy? I’d much prefer she’d just let the building continue to serve its current purpose, of course, but if we take her at her word about wanting innovation and reinvention in that building, there could hardly be a better way to accomplish it.
But she will have to hurry. Now we learn that other states are thinking of selling government buildings. If we let other states go first, how will we be able to say we’re being innovative? From ABC News:
It’s the solution that no one wants: selling the buildings at the heart of Arizona’s state legislature. Arizona’s State Senate and House of Representatives buildings are on the list of possible properties that the state could sell to help close a more than $3 billion budget gap next year.
But like other recession-battered states, the Grand Canyon state is desperate to close a huge budget gap — and so the two, 50-year-old buildings home to Arizona’s State Senate and House of Representatives grace the list of possible properties that the state could sell to help close a more than $3 billion budget gap next year. …
Arizona is one of at least a handful of states — including California, Connecticut and Pennsylvania — considering or moving forward with state property sales.