For Gov. Walz, a little rent control would help

Opinion editor's note: Editorials represent the opinions of the Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom.

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If the DFLers in control of state government are serious about wanting to be seen as prudent stewards of the public purse, they shouldn't be willing to spend so freely on temporary lodgings for the governor and his family.

The Minnesota governor's residence is about to undergo renovations expected to last a year and a half and cost $6.3 million. During that time, the family of Gov. Tim Walz will live in a rented home in the exclusive suburb of Sunfish Lake. The rent for that home is expected to run to more than $17,000 a month.

Walz and members of his administration have made clear that the governor himself was not closely involved in the search for a rental property, and that the particular requirements of a governor's residence inflated the price. Republicans are only too happy to express their shock at the extravagance — as if the property in question did not belong to their 2014 U.S. Senate candidate, Mike McFadden — and to suggest that Walz is behaving in a manner reminiscent of history's most decadent rulers.

But Walz does not deserve to be compared to Marie Antoinette, as Republican state Rep. Paul Novotny did in criticizing the choice of rental property. Walz never said "Let them eat cake," although he may have said "Let them eat lunch" during the successful drive to provide free meals for Minnesota's schoolchildren.

Although the comparison strikes us as unfair, we will concede that the Democratic governor at times shares the ill-fated French queen's unfortunate tendency toward political tone-deafness. Minnesotans are far better off than the French peasantry of 1789, but few could come anywhere near affording the kind of rent the state will pay for the Walz family's temporary home.

Nor could they afford to live in the Walz family's current home, of course. The governor's residence, built by lumber baron Horace H. Irvine in 1910-1912 and given to the state in 1965, is a stately Tudor-style mansion. Neighboring houses of similar stature, were they to be put on the market, would command prices approaching $2 million, according to Zillow. And if they were available to rent, they would go for something like $10,000 a month.

Walz's record supports the idea that, as his spokesperson remarked to an editorial writer, "He didn't run for office to live in a nice house." He has made a practice of refusing to accept pay raises and has announced that during his term he will not accept the salary increase that has just been recommended by the bipartisan Compensation Council.

He struck a similarly unselfish note in his comments about the Sunfish Lake rental, asserting that he was "pretty agnostic where I lay my head." Even so, this episode threatens to erode the governor's political capital — not to mention the state treasury.

As far as we can tell, the McFadden property will meet the ceremonial and security requirements that guided its selection. The security considerations are especially important in an era of threats against public officials. But there is another requirement that the Sunfish Lake property fails to meet: that of good political sense.

At a time when the DFL controls both houses of the Legislature and the governor's office, a little frugality in the governor's living arrangements would have been wise.